Archangel Chronicles: Everybody Hurts
by VibeQuake
Summary: "I was trying to forget my past and move on," Perry said. "Leaving ARCHANGEL behind was the best decision I ever made, even if that decision was technically made for me. The problem is that I really do care about you, Pansy, but Portia was my childhood best friend and first love. My brain knows I can't be with both of you but my heart doesn't want to accept it."
1. Prologue

_He was running as fast as he could through the forest, occasionally checking to see if his chasers were still in pursuit. His limbs were aching and his breaths were coming in ragged gasps but what fuelled his energy was the fact that if he was caught, he would be severely beaten, or worse…executed. He had seen Kirk do it before._

 _Not spotting a tree stump in his way, he tripped over it and went tumbling down a hill. He tucked all his limbs in to protect them but he still felt fresh pain coming from the scar on his left bicep. When he hit a pile of leaves at the bottom, he quickly buried himself in the leaves to give himself some time to rest. He checked his scar. The ten-centimetre-long, two-year-old scar was oozing blood, so he quickly pressed a dry leaf against it and wiped it as best he could._

 _Having had just two minutes to rest, he quickly scrambled up again and continued running. The forest seemed denser than it did before; perhaps that was because he was in an unfamiliar part. He had spent a good few months over his whole life—five years—exploring these woods, but naturally he couldn't have explored every single nook and cranny; most of his time had been spent on tasks and anyway Donald hadn't allowed any Taskers to stray farther than one mile from the base._

 _Two gunshots behind him made him flinch but he kept running, having not quite achieved his top speed. He pushed his muscles a little harder as three more gunshots exploded through the air. There it was: maximum speed. But the question floating through his mind was…was it enough?_

 _A distant yell of, "This way!" made him squeak in terror and accidentally trip over into a tree. Dazed, he got up again and resumed running, but his movements were more sluggish this time. He was convinced that he was going to die…_

 _When he saw a figure standing in his way. He skidded to a halt, chest heaving. The boy looked only about ten years old. He had brown hair and wore a grey hoodie and grey tracksuit trousers. He approached the teal platypus, who began to shake in terror, until the boy gently picked him up and began to stroke him. "It's okay," the little boy said comfortingly. "You're safe now. I'm going to take you to Daddy."_

 _The platypus didn't have enough energy to struggle so he lay limply in the boy's arms as the boy carried him away. He only had enough strength to realise that the boy was taking him in a direction perpendicular to the way he had been going. He thought that perhaps this would confuse the people looking for him._

 _The boy came out into the open. The platypus looked around through tired eyes and saw a large block building in front of him. The boy seemed to be carrying him towards an adult man. Since the platypus didn't recognise the man, he reasoned that this man should not want to harm him._

 _The boy patted the man on the back. "Daddy, I found a duck!"_

 _The man turned round and stared at the platypus. "Where did you find this?"_

 _"_ _In the forest!" the boy proclaimed proudly._

 _"_ _Monty, your mother and I have told you hundreds of times not to go into the forest!" the man scolded._

 _"_ _But Daddy, the duck was in trouble!" protested Monty._

 _"_ _It's a platypus, son," the man corrected. "And what do you mean by in trouble?"_

 _"_ _Some bad people were chasing the plat-ee-puss," Monty said, sounding out the word. "I saved him."_

 _The man gently took the platypus from Monty and looked down at him. He fished around in his back pocket and picked out a small device, which he gently fit into the platypus's mouth. No sooner had he done that than the platypus felt something change._

 _"_ _What is that?" he asked aloud._

 _"_ _That is a translator," the man replied. "It allows us to communicate. Now, do you have a name?"_

 _"_ _I…" The platypus hesitated, wondering if he should give his name. He realised that he would probably never be going back there so he said, "Perry. My name is Perry."_

 _"_ _Hello, Perry. My name is Major Francis Monogram, leader of the Organisation Without a Cool Acronym."_

 _"_ _That's a long name," Perry said, his dizzy brain not realising that there were actually two names in what Major Monogram said._

 _"_ _So how old are you, Perry?"_

 _"_ _Five," yawned Perry. "I'm five."_

 _"_ _I'm ten!" Monty stated happily._

 _"_ _Do you live in the forest?" Major Monogram asked._

 _Perry nodded sleepily, before he realised again that now he had no home, and he shook his head. "I used to, but I was driven out."_

 _Major Monogram frowned. "I will want to know details about that, but I can tell you're very tired now so I'll take you inside. We'll train you to be an OWCA agent and then we can put you up for adoption, okay?"_

 _"_ _Okay," mumbled Perry, already half asleep._

…

 **Aww, cute little Perry! Who was he running from and why was he "driven out"? All answers revealed in this story :)**

 **Oh, by the way, platypus years = human years x2. Example, Perry is five years old in platypus years but has the mentality of a ten year old human.**


	2. Superspies

**Five Years Later**

Perry lazily leant back in his office chair, listening to his girlfriend's voice on the radio through his headphones.

"Hey folks! Your pal Pansy here with the latest summer tunes. It's going to be a scorcher out there today, so better get your sunglasses and bathing suits out. And here's just the track for you to sunbathe to: an old PFT favourite called _Summer, Where Do We Begin?_ "

The PFT song began playing as Pansy's voice fell silent. Perry smiled and closed his eyes, feeling the cool air conditioning on his face as he listened to the song. There really was nothing better than this. Listening to his girlfriend's radio station while relaxing after another successful mission.

However, it didn't last.

Someone knocked loudly on the door of his cubicle. Perry sighed, removed his headphones, and turned his chair round, spotting one of his close friends. "Tally, I was just relaxing."

"Sorry, but Major Monogram wants to discuss something with you in his office," Tallulah the Turtle said. She was Terry the Turtle's twin sister, and almost his polar opposite. While Terry was careful and unemotional, Tallulah was carefree and highly emotional.

Perry sighed again and switched off his radio. "I'm coming."

He got up and followed Tallulah out the office. On his way, he saw Peter and Pinky, two of his best friends, chatting by the water cooler. They gave him smiles and waves as he passed.

When they got to Major Monogram's office, Tallulah opened the door and held it for Perry, who walked through it, hearing it close behind him. He went up to Major Monogram's desk and sat down on a chair in front of it. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, Agent P," Major Monogram said. "You have recently completed a successful mission, correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"Tell me about it."

Perry frowned. "How come, sir?"

"I am aware that Kane Kennedy gave you your mission so I would like to know the details."

Perry was confused, for two reasons. One, Major Monogram usually didn't concern himself with random missions. Two, he didn't have to get the information from Perry himself; Kane could have given the details of the mission to his superior. But Perry obediently said, "Well, Kane informed me that Dr Bloodpudding was stealing parts for some kind of new ray so I went out to his building, smashed the ray, and apprehended Dr Bloodpudding."

"Very good, Agent P."

Perry noticed that Major Monogram seemed distracted. "Is everything okay, sir?"

"Yes, Agent P." The major sighed and rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I've just realised that yesterday was your five year anniversary of being with us at OWCA."

"Oh yeah. It was." Perry had forgotten about that. "Is it a problem?"

"No. It's just that…well…how much do you remember about your past?"

Perry paused, thinking. "I remember everything that was ever done to me, all my best friends, all my worst enemies, and almost every task I was given. Why, sir?"

Major Monogram was frowning at Perry and apparently missed the question, so Perry self-consciously got up and left the room. Major Monogram still didn't speak.

On his way back to his office, a flash of blue outside the window caught his eye. He peered out and saw a familiar portal appear above the grass outside. Four figures tumbled through and landed on the green grass, looking exhausted. Perry quickly rushed down the stairs and out onto the lawn. "Are you guys okay?" he asked urgently.

Edie Ellershaw rolled onto her back, displaying bruises down her arms. "Fun fact: robots don't have a sense of humour."

"Where did you guys even go?" Perry asked in amusement.

"Mississippi," replied Monty Monogram, who had flopped on his face with his limbs sprawled out. He too had various injuries over his face and some cuts in his spysuit. "Dad said there was a guy who had invented loads of robots that were terrorising people in Jackson so we headed over there."

"Did you guys win?"

"'Course." Lyla Lolliberry sat up with her hands out behind her and leant on her arms, grinning up at Perry. "The Superspies always win."

"Okay, first of all, we never agreed to name ourselves that," said Reuben Roddenstein, who was also lying on his back. "Second of all, we don't always win. Remember Christmas two years ago?"

Edie rolled back onto her front so that she could see Reuben and pointed at him. "We don't mention Christmas of 2008. Ever."

"For good reason," Lyla contributed. "Anyway, we did win, eventually. With a few physical knocks."

"And a lot of knocks to our pride," Monty added.

"Speak for yourself." Reuben sat up and looked over at Monty. "Not all of us have egos the size of OWCA."

"Okay, _whoa_." Monty held up his hands. "I think you mistook me for Lyla."

"Hey!"

Perry couldn't stop a laugh. "I think I'll leave you guys to your bickering." He turned and began walking away.

"Hey, could you tell my dad we're back?" Monty called after him. "We're just heading out for some food."

"Sure."

…

 **The Superspies: Lyla, Monty, Edie, and Reuben! If you've read my Alpha Universe stories, you'll know who Edie and Reuben are. If not, this easter egg will make no sense XD**

 **And no, the Canadian Lyla, Edie, and Reuben are not agents of OWCA. Monty joined COWCA and they formed a team (unofficially called the Superspies) which bases at both OWCA and COWCA. How the portal is created will be explained later.**


	3. A Secret Conversation

Perry headed back towards Major Monogram's office. When he got there, he saw that the door was ajar. He reached to push it open when he heard Carl's voice from inside. "…but are you going to tell Agent P?"

Perry stepped back in surprise.

"No," Major Monogram's voice replied. "We can't tell him. He can't know anything about this or it'll throw him off."

"Sir, I really think he can handle this."

"Not this, Carl. He can't know about this. I've been trying to help him forget his past but he was in here just a few minutes ago and he told me that he still remembers everything about ARCHANGEL."

Perry let out a muted gasp at the mention of his former organisation. He had avoided talking about, mentioning, or thinking about the organisation for five years, and just the mention of its name brought back memories, both good and bad.

"Surely we don't want him to forget _everything_ about ARCHANGEL?" Carl protested.

"We do when there's a chance he still has some loyalty towards them."

Perry felt a lump rise in his throat. Major Monogram really believed that Perry still had any kind of loyalty towards the people who abused him for years and turned him into a living weapon?

"Sir, I think you're-."

"I can't take any risks, Carl," Major Monogram interrupted. "Not now, when he's our best agent. Imagine what would happen if it turns out that Agent P still does have loyalty to ARCHANGEL."

"There's no proof that he does."

"That's because ARCHANGEL have been off-grid for five years."

There was a pause. "Have you told Agent P that you knew about ARCHANGEL before you found him?"

Perry's hands covered his mouth in shock. When Monty had found him in the woods, Perry had told Major Monogram everything he knew about ARCHANGEL's day-to-day running, though nothing about the experiences Perry himself had had. The major had told Perry that he hadn't known anything about ARCHANGEL. Had Major Monogram… _lied_ to him?

"No I haven't, and I'd like to keep it that way. Like I said, we really can't afford to have him unfocused at the moment. Not when we're so close to finally bringing down LOVEMUFFIN."

"Sir, what if LOVEMUFFIN and ARCHANGEL decide to work together?"

"They won't."

"How can you be so confident about that, sir?"

"Simple, Carl. The two leaders hate each other."

"I guess that makes sense," Carl admitted. "But how do you know that?"

"Kane Kennedy told me."

"What does Kane have to do with anything?"

"The leader of ARCHANGEL is called Kirk Kennedy," Major Monogram said patiently.

Carl apparently realised at the same time as Perry. "Kane is related to Kirk?"

Perry felt a stab of nausea hit his stomach. He turned away and leant against the wall by the side of the door frame, closing his eyes. He wasn't sure how many more surprise revelations he would be able to stand.

"I believe Kane is Kirk's older brother," explained Major Monogram. "That's where I get most of my information about Kirk from. Kane doesn't know much about ARCHANGEL but he does know Kirk. He's provided lots of useful information."

Perry knew he had heard enough. He quickly left the corridor and ran all the way back down to his office, where he collapsed into his chair and tried to make sense of the information he had just overheard.

 _One: Major Monogram still thinks I'm loyal in some capacity to ARCHANGEL when they are responsible for five years of agony for me._

 _Two: Major Monogram lied to me about the fact that he didn't know anything about ARCHANGEL when I first came to him five years ago._

 _Three: Kane Kennedy is the older brother of ARCHANGEL's leader and, having worked with them for equal amounts of time, I didn't realise._

To calm himself down, Perry put on his headphones and turned the radio back on again. The final bars of the song _Summer Belongs To You_ were playing.

"For the folks who have just joined us, that was _Summer Belongs To You,_ by PFT," said his girlfriend's chirpy voice. "But then again, what song about summer _isn't_ sung by PFT?"

Perry let out a chuckle, despite himself.

"That, I'm afraid, concludes my program for today. It is now seven pm and it's time for everyone to go home, including me. If my boyfriend is listening, I'll see you at your house later."

Perry chuckled again.

"This is your pal Pansy signing off for now. Goodnight."

Her usual jingle played, and then the static started. Perry took off his headphones and lay them on the desk. Glancing at the clock, Perry decided to leave early. He punched out with his card and took the air tube back home.

He still lived with the Flynn-Fletchers. Linda and Lawrence were unaware of his secret identity but the kids knew. Candace had actually moved out to go to university last year but Phineas and Ferb, who were only fourteen years old, were always very happy to see Perry and hear about life fighting crime.

When he got home, the door was locked, so that must have meant that the Flynn-Fletchers were still out. Linda and Lawrence were most likely still at work, and Perry suspected that the boys were over at Buford or Isabella's house, as they often were nowadays.

He entered the house through the pet door and spotted his girlfriend just going into the living room.

"Pansy!" called Perry.

Pansy turned round and spotted Perry. "Hey, welcome home!"

Pansy and Perry kissed briefly. "How was your day?" Perry asked, as he always did. "I heard a bit of your show."

"Which bit?"

Perry grabbed his girlfriend's hands and twirled her round the room, singing, _"The days are longer, the nights are shorter, the sun is shining, it's noticeably warmer!"_

"Oh, that bit," Pansy laughed. "Sorry, I can't stay long. I just wanted to make sure your day was okay."

Perry's face fell as he remembered the conversation he had overheard between Major Monogram and Carl, but he forced a smile. "Just like any other day, really."

Pansy didn't look convinced but she nodded. "Okay, well, I have to go. I'm meeting my brother for dinner."

"Okay. Say hi to him from me."

"Will do."

Patsy picked up her bag and headed back out through the pet door. Perry watched her go, smiling. He felt lucky to have her. Sometimes she reminded him of-

 _No,_ he told himself. _Don't think about her. Pansy is your present and possibly your future. Focus on her_.

But try as he might he couldn't focus on Pansy. All he could think about was the horrible feeling in his stomach that something big was about to happen…

…

 **Dun duN DUUUN! Poor Perry :(**


	4. Memories Of A Time Long Past

**A/N: mentions of blood in this chapter**

…

When Perry got into work the next day, Monty came to meet him. "Hey, Agent P. You haven't seen my dad about, have you?"

Perry shook his head, frowning. "No, sorry, I've only just arrived."

"I can't find him anywhere," Monty said, looking rather worried.

"Did you check at your house?"

"Well, no. It's not like him to be late, so I thought I'd check here first. But maybe I should check at home."

As Monty began walking off, Perry suddenly remembered why Major Monogram wasn't here. "Wait, Monty! Your dad has Sundays off now."

Monty slapped his forehead. "Oh yes! Gosh, I got all panicked over nothing. Thanks, Perry."

"No problem."

"I don't know why he gets Sundays off," Monty said, frowning. "He never used to. Especially since we're in the middle of a LOVEMUFFIN crisis."

"What?" Perry was confused. This was the first time he had heard of a crisis.

"We found out yesterday: Rodney and Rodrigo are working on some kind of death ray and we have no idea where to find them. Didn't my dad tell you?"

"Your dad is an expert at keeping secrets at the moment," Perry muttered.

Monty frowned at that but he didn't comment. "Okay, well, I'm going to go find the rest of the team. Take it easy today, Agent P. You deserve it." He walked off.

Perry sighed. He wished he could have told Monty about the conversation he had overheard but he knew that he should keep quiet until there was some definitive proof that the major was hiding something from him. The thought suddenly occurred to him that Monty might be in on it too. That made him feel both sad and angry at the same time.

He headed to his office and spent two boring hours checking through nearly a hundred unread emails.

Deciding to go for a walk, Perry stood up and stretched. He was just leaving his office when he bumped into Terry and Tallulah, who were chatting by the water cooler. He attempted to walk past them but Terry called, "Hey Perry! Is everything okay?"

Perry plastered a smile on his face and turned round. "Sure. Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know, you've just got that look on your face," Terry replied. "The one where you look both deep in thought and incredibly hurt at the same time."

"I do not have that look."

Tallulah scoffed. "You can't see your own face so you'll have to take our word for it, and our word says that you definitely do have that look."

"Okay," Perry sighed. "Whatever."

"Perry!" called a familiar female voice.

Perry turned to see Pansy coming down the corridor towards him. He smiled and went to meet her. "What are you doing here?"

"It's Pepper's turn to manage the radio so I just decided to come see you at work," Pansy beamed. "How's your day going so far?"

"Boring," grinned Perry. "Very boring."

All of a sudden, there was a loud crashing sound coming from outside. Perry, Pansy, Terry, and Tallulah all ran outside and saw a large metal box about the height of one of OWCA's floors on the lawn. More agents gathered around the box at a safe distance, when the front of it suddenly fell away, revealing a dark space inside.

All at once, dozens of various animals came pouring out of the metal box and began attacking the agents. Terry was tackled by a brown cat while Tallulah ran off to help a lizard agent who was being attacked by a large bear.

Pansy hid behind Perry in fright. "Go, quickly!" Perry said urgently to his girlfriend.

Pansy nodded fearfully and took off running. Perry hit away a rabbit that came too close to him, before he saw a dog agent pin Pansy to the ground. The orange platypus let out a scream. Perry leapt towards them and tackled the dog off his girlfriend. As they landed, the dog scrambled off. Perry whirled round for Pansy and found his girlfriend hiding behind the OWCA sign.

Just then, Peter appeared out of nowhere. His fedora was missing and he had a new cut above his eye. "Who on Earth are they?" he panted. "And why are they attacking us?"

Perry shrugged. "I don't know but we need to drive them back to wherever they came from."

Perry and Peter both ducked as an eagle soared over their heads. "Is he one of ours?" Peter asked.

"If he's wearing a fedora, then yes," Perry replied. "So you should probably find yours and put it back on."

"Good idea." Peter ran back into the battle.

Perry flew to attack a blue cat but the cat dodged using a move that was very familiar to Perry. He froze in alarm. "No…!"

"Perry!" yelled a voice.

Perry turned just in time to dodge out of the way of a barrelling rhino. Pinky, who had been the one to warn him, ran up to him. "What's the matter with you?" he demanded. "You're not usually this unfocused!"

"I-I don't know." Perry shook his head to clear it. "It won't happen again."

"Good, because the last thing we need is-."

Before Pinky could finish, a jaguar with razor sharp claws came flying at them. Perry only just managed to duck the swipe but the jaguar's claws caught Pinky and scored three cuts down his chest, causing the little Chihuahua to fall backwards with a whine of pain.

"Pinky!"

Perry quickly attacked the jaguar and kicked it away from his best friend. As he did, he suddenly saw a red scar on the jaguar's ear, causing him to freeze again. _"Carlos?"_ he gasped.

The jaguar stared back at him for a moment, before he turned and ran off.

Perry shook himself out of his daze and bent down beside Pinky. The Chihuahua's wounds were leaking blood but since gravity was on their side, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Perry was sure that the wounds were not too deep. He picked up his best friend and carried him to where Pansy was still hiding behind the OWCA sign. "Look after him," he told his girlfriend, who nodded hurriedly.

Then he ran back into the fray, searching for anybody who needed help. He spotted Tallulah struggling under the weight of the bear that she had been fighting earlier. He had just begun to run over there to help her when something hit him in the back and sent him tumbling forwards. He rolled into a low battle stance and looked up at his assailant.

It was a darker teal platypus with a scar over her right eye. Her face was twisted in a sneer, and it was obvious that she had recognised Perry just as easily as he had recognised her. "No…" gasped Perry.

A half-bitter half-sardonic smile appeared on the platypus's face. "Hello Perry."

"P-Portia…"

Perry was so stunned that he wasn't able to move when Portia leapt at him and kicked him hard in the head, knocking him onto his side. The blow combined with the fact that his brain already felt dizzy made him pass out almost immediately.

…

 ***le gasp* whAT IS GOING ON?!**


	5. Physical And Emotional Injuries

**A/N: I know that animals probably don't have the same blood groups as humans but for the sake of this story, please pretend they do.**

…

"Perry! _Perry!_ "

Someone was calling his name. He was still lying in the exact same position he had fallen in, in the exact same place. Nobody had moved him. His head was throbbing and his eyes didn't want to open, but when he finally managed to see, he saw Pansy knelt next to him. His girlfriend helped him sit up.

"Are you okay?"

"Portia…" was the first thing Perry said. "I mean…yeah, I'm fine."

Pansy's eyes narrowed, and Perry knew she had picked up on the name he had said, even before she asked, "Who's Portia?"

"The platypus who knocked me out," Perry replied. "I used to know her five years ago."

"Oh."

Pansy still didn't look happy but Perry was saved from further interrogation by the hurried arrival of Peter the Panda, who was panting. "Perry, we have a serious problem," he wheezed. "It's Pinky. He's been taken to the hospital but Apollo doesn't know if he'll make it."

Perry stared at Peter in horror for a moment before he pushed past his friend and sprinted all the way to the medical bay, which was surprisingly empty, considering the size of the battle that had taken place earlier. There were only about half a dozen agents in beds, one of whom Apollo was tending to on the opposite side of the room.

Perry quickly headed over to the bed that held his best friend. Pinky's whole body was paler than normal and, since he was lying the top of the covers, the red-soaked bandages around his chest were visible. Perry felt tears prick behind his eyelids as he gently stroked his best friend's shoulder.

Footsteps behind him made him turn. Apollo was standing behind him, a sad look on his face. "Is he going to be okay?" Perry asked fearfully.

"I don't know," Apollo replied solemnly. "The main problem is blood loss. As you can see, our bandages haven't been working very well. That's his third bandage."

Perry took in a sharp breath and looked back down at the blood-soaked bandage. "His _third_? Can't you operate or something?"

"We can't because there's nothing to operate on," Apollo explained. "We thought about doing a blood transfusion but we'd need to find someone with the exact same blood type and I don't have time to test every agent."

"Well, what blood group is he?" Perry asked desperately.

"AB."

Perry cursed. "I'm O."

"I'm AB," said a voice from behind him.

Perry and Apollo turned to see Pansy standing in the doorway. "You're AB?" repeated Perry dumbly.

Pansy nodded, coming into the room to stand beside the bed. "If it would help, I can give a blood transfusion."

Perry looked hopefully up at Apollo, whose face creased up. "The difference in species might make it a bit hard but seeing as you're both mammals, I don't see any major problem."

Perry breathed out in relief.

"Okay, could you just hop into this chair while I get my stuff?"

Pansy obeyed as Apollo headed quickly into the store room. "You should probably leave for now," Pansy said to Perry, who nodded and kissed Pansy on the cheek.

"Good luck."

He left the hospital bay and immediately bumped into Tallulah, who was waiting outside the hospital bay. She had two black eyes and three claw marks down her arm. "Are you okay?" Perry asked her.

Tallulah nodded. "I'm fine."

"So what happened? Did we win?"

"Most of the animals got back into their little box and flew away," Tallulah told him. "But we managed to capture about ten or twelve of them, including the platypus who knocked you out."

 _Portia…_

"You seemed a bit distracted during the fight," Tallulah said. "Is everything okay?"

Perry nodded quickly. "Yeah, fine. So where's Terry?"

"I think he's talking to Major Monogram about the attack."

At that moment, Major Monogram's voice came over the intercom: "All agents to the main hall immediately."

"Speak of the devil," Tallulah sighed. "We'd better get down there."

When Perry and Tallulah got to the main hall, the latter went off to stand next to her twin brother. They all watched as Major Monogram came onto the stage with Carl standing a little behind him.

"As you all know, that attack was not from LOVEMUFFIN," Major Monogram began, apparently deciding to cut straight to the chase. "It was conducted by a shadow organisation known as ARCHANGEL."

He paused while all the agents digested this. Perry felt like he had had the wind knocked out of him but he took in a deep breath and continued listening.

"They are like a mixture of OWCA and LOVEMUFFIN. They use animal operatives known as Taskers, who go on little missions called tasks. One of those tasks was apparently to attack OWCA. Now, ARCHANGEL is arguably more dangerous than LOVEMUFFIN; the scientists of the latter are easy to defeat. ARCHANGEL's operatives are highly skilled, and trained specifically to become living weapons."

Perry saw Major Monogram's eyes dart quickly in his direction. He pulled his hat over his eyes but luckily it didn't seem like anyone had noticed.

"We don't know what they want or what their goal is but all agents are to be on high alert from now on," Major Monogram finished, before he turned and walked off the stage.

Perry felt a little stuffy in the hall so he moved outside for some fresh air. If Perry hadn't overheard the conversation yesterday, he wouldn't have thought there was anything suspicious about Major Monogram knowing all that about ARCHANGEL; it was all the information Perry had given him when he was five years old.

He couldn't believe Portia had been captured. Now he had the opportunity to see her again, properly, after five years. But at the same time, he didn't know if he wanted to see her. Everything was different now. He didn't know how Portia would react to the fact that Perry was going out with Pansy.

 _If Portia is here, maybe Georgia and Oliver…?_

 _No,_ he told himself. _You don't know that Georgia and Oliver are here. Just focus on Portia for now._

He wondered briefly if he should tell Pansy about his and Portia's history but he decided against it. It would unnecessarily worry Pansy. Her reaction to Perry just saying her name for the first time ever confirmed to Perry what he had known for a while: that Pansy got jealous easily. She would flip if she knew about Perry and Portia's history…

…

 **WHAT IS PERRY AND PORTIA'S HISTORY?! Find out soon :)**


	6. Suspicion

**Anyone else feeling sorry for Perry already?**

…

From outside, Perry headed straight to Major Monogram's office. He wasn't going to let on that he had heard his superior's secret conversation but he wanted answers, and that want made him cross.

He burst the door open, to protests from Carl, who was over by the filing cabinet, and stormed up to the desk, where Major Monogram was sitting.

"How long have you known about ARCHANGEL?" he demanded.

Major Monogram said nothing. With a calm expression on his face, he gestured to the chair. "Sit, Agent P."

"I'd prefer to stand," Perry said forcefully. "…sir."

Major Monogram sighed. "Look, Agent P, you know that I was only informed about ARCHANGEL five years ago when you arrived."

"I don't believe you. I think you've known about ARCHANGEL since Kane defected from them."

Major Monogram looked sharply up at Perry. "How did you know that?"

"I didn't," Perry replied, folding his arms.

Major Monogram stared at him for a moment longer before he sighed and closed his eyes, having realised he fell for Perry's bluff.

"So it's true? Kane used to work for ARCHANGEL?"

"He was one of the founding members, just like his brother Kirk Kennedy was," Major Monogram explained, resigned. "But he soon left when he disagreed with what ARCHANGEL was planning. He came here and offered all the information he had on ARCHANGEL, which wasn't much, since he left before the plan had been implemented. It turned out that they changed most of it because Kane had left."

"So what about me?"

"Well, when Monty found you and you said you had come from ARCHANGEL, I pretended not to know anything about them so that you would give me all the information you had."

"You lied to me," Perry accused.

"I'm sorry, Agent P. I needed to protect my organisation."

Perry took a step backwards and accidentally bumped into the chair. He glared daggers at it.

"Agent P, I need to ask you a serious question."

Perry looked back up at Major Monogram. "Sure."

"Do you still have any loyalty to ARCHANGEL?"

Perry stared at the major in shock and horror, a pit settling in his stomach. He had not expected his superior to admit that he had doubts about Perry's loyalty towards OWCA.

 _"_ _Do you still have any loyalty to ARCHANGEL?"_ repeated Major Monogram, more firmly this time.

Perry slammed his fist on the desk and said in a low yet angry voice, "Sir, ARCHANGEL captured my parents and made my mother give birth to me in a prison cell, snatching me away from them just two days after I was born. They raised me not as a child but as a machine, giving me wound after wound and scarring me forever." He lifted up the fur on his left bicep and displayed the red scar. "They treated me like I was not a living being. They gave me little nutrition, sent me out on missions where I often almost died, and branded me." He turned round and showed Major Monogram the brand of two angel wings on the small of his back, spreading up to his shoulders. "They are responsible for half my life, and they made sure it was a life full of fear and pain with very little reward. The only things that made my life bearable was the periods of fun I had with my best friends, who are all still loyal to ARCHANGEL. I, however, am not. And frankly I am very much insulted that you think I still have any kind of obligation to ARCHANGEL."

Perry didn't stick around to hear the major's reply. He turned and stormed out of the room, feeling sick to his stomach. It was one thing to overhear Major Monogram confiding in Carl that he suspect Perry of being loyal to his former organisation but it was another entirely for his superior to tell him to his face.

He decided to go down to the cells and find out which other animals were caught. After all, he hadn't recognised all the Taskers, so it was likely that Kirk had recruited more operatives. However, if Portia had been there (which she had been), perhaps Georgia and Oliver _were_ there after all. Or perhaps Carlos or any of the other Taskers who had been in ARCHANGEL at the same time as Perry.

He changed course and began to walk in the direction of the cells when he saw Pansy coming towards him. She had a bandage over the top of her arm. Perry quickly ran towards her. "Did it go okay?"

Pansy nodded. Her face was slightly pale but she had a smile on her face. "He's going to be okay. I'm feeling a bit dizzy now but Apollo said the transfusion worked. Pinky's going to be off his feet for a while, according to Apollo, but he's not going to die."

Perry hugged Pansy tightly in both relief and happiness. "Man, I was worried," he gasped out. "Pinky's been my best friend for five years."

Pansy surprised Perry by abruptly pulling away from him. "Perry, about that platypus…"

"I knew her from ages ago, okay?" Perry felt worried about how Pansy would react. He hadn't told her his past in ARCHANGEL but because Pansy had missed Major Monogram's announcement, she didn't even know about the organisation. Perry suddenly saw a way out of this awkward situation, but that was only if Pansy's sense of duty overpowered her jealousy and curiosity. "Oh, by the way, Major Monogram gave us a speech in the main hall, that you missed. It was pretty important so you might need to go see him."

Pansy was technically an OWCA agent but she was basically a teaching assistant to the person who trained the Agents In Training, and since there were no AITs at the moment, Pansy basically had a lot of time off.

Pansy gave Perry a suspicious look. "Don't think this conversation is over, Perry. I want to know everything about your history with Portia."

Perry nodded nervously. "Okay."

Pansy shot one more glare at Perry before she walked past him and went into Major Monogram's office.

Perry headed down to the cells. Eleanor the Eagle and Harry the Hyena were on guard. Harry took one look at Perry's dishevelled appearance and burst into laughter. Perry would normally be insulted by that but he just ignored it. "Can I go in?" he asked.

Eleanor gave a stiff nod and buzzed Perry through without a word. He stopped just as the door closed behind him and took a deep breath.

This was it.

…

 **Aaaaaaand you'll have to wait 'til next time to see Perry's reunion with Portia I:}**


	7. When We First Met

**THERE'S GONNA BE A FLASHBACK IN THIS CHAPTER!**

…

As Perry edged cautiously down the corridor, he spotted a familiar golden retriever in one of the cells, and his heart sank.

 _Georgia…_

She looked asleep so he left her alone. In the next cell, Carlos was lying on the bed. He gave Perry a glare as the platypus passed.

"Traitor," hissed a familiar voice.

Perry closed his eyes briefly and bit his lower beak in anguish as he turned round and saw the ocelot in the cell opposite him. He walked slowly to the glass and placed his hand on it. "Hello Oliver."

"Don't "hello Oliver" me," snarled the ocelot, who was curled up on the bed in the same way as Carlos was. "We all thought you were dead for four years until Kirk told us you'd joined the enemy. I don't know what destroyed Portia more: thinking you were dead or knowing you had betrayed her."

"I never betrayed her," Perry argued. "I was pushed too hard so I left."

"You left," scoffed Oliver. "Yeah, right. Kirk told us all the story of how the brave little platypus tried to fight the system and was subsequently driven out."

"I was pushed too hard," Perry repeated calmly. "I was five years old; still a child."

"We were all five years old," Oliver snarled. "How come none of us felt the need to leave?"

Perry had no answer to that.

"You let Portia care deeply about you and then you shattered her heart, first by making her think you were dead, then by betraying her. She'll never trust anyone again and it's all your fault. She barely even trusted _us_ when she heard you'd gone. Georgia and I tried everything to reassure her that we were never going to do what you did. She only began believing us a few weeks ago."

Perry didn't reply. He looked down at the ground briefly before he turned and walked away.

"Yeah, keep running!" Oliver yelled after him. "Keep leaving your friends! It's what you do best!"

Perry ignored him but he felt a stab in his heart. He had no idea that Portia, Oliver, and Georgia had thought he was dead. It made him feel depressed.

When he peered into the last cell from a distance, he saw the beautiful teal platypus lying on her back on the bed. It reminded Perry of the day he met her.

…

 _A week-old Perry was shoved into a room full of other baby animals of the same age as him. He cowered in the corner, watching the animals talk and fight and argue. He wished his parents were here. He made himself remember them: his father was green and his mother was blue, creating his own teal fur. He remember that his mother smelt of milk and flowers. He hoped that the bad people who had taken him away from them had released them back into the wild, instead of…_

 _He didn't want to finish the thought._

 _He looked around for anybody who seemed friendly. Most of the animals looked rather aggressive, but he spotted a teal platypus who looked a little like him. She was lying in the opposite corner on her back, arms over her chest, fingers interlocked. She seemed to be asleep. Perry crept past everybody else and over to the platypus. She definitely seemed to be asleep, so Perry gently rested his head on her chest and pretended she was his mother, even though they were about the same age. No sooner had he done that than the platypus suddenly shot up. Perry scrambled backwards, withering under the confused look the platypus was giving him._

 _"_ _I'm so sorry!" he cried. "I've only just come and I've been separated from my parents and I was scared and I didn't know what to do and-I'm so sorry, please don't hate me!"_

 _He held his arms over his face, thinking the platypus was going to hit him. Instead, the female platypus gently pulled Perry's arms away from his face and looked into his eyes. "It's okay. I know what you're going through. My name's Portia."_

 _"_ _I'm P-Perry," stammered Perry._

 _"_ _Nice to meet you, Perry." Portia scanned the room. "Huh, when I lay down in that corner, there was only about ten people here. Now there's—what?—thirty?"_

 _"_ _M-maybe," Perry stuttered._

 _"_ _Don't look so nervous," chirped Portia. "I'm not going to bite you."_

 _She lay back down and patted her chest. "Come on, lie back down."_

 _Baby Perry hesitantly lay his head on Portia's chest, feeling her warmth under his ear. "You're warm," he said without thinking, before he quickly squeaked, "That came out wrong!"_

 _Portia laughed briefly, making her chest—and by extension, Perry's head—bob up and down. "You're adorable. I think we're going to be best friends."_

 _Perry smiled. "I want to be your best friend."_

 _"_ _I want to be yours too. Let's stick together, no matter what these weirdos do to us, okay?"_

 _"_ _Okay," Perry agreed happily._

…

Perry brought himself out of the memory with a little shake of his head. _Just get it over with,_ he told himself firmly.

He walked up to the glass and knocked on it. Portia's head didn't move but she said, "Hello Perry."

"You knocked me out," Perry automatically said, and then he cursed himself. That was not the first thing he wanted to say when he saw Portia again after five years.

Portia let out a bitter chuckle. "Yes I did."

There was a pause as Perry tried to choose something to say but Portia got there first. "Do you remember our song?"

"Of course I do."

"Prove it."

Perry hesitated, before he began singing, " _When your day is long and the night, the night is yours alone. When you're sure you've had enough of this life, well hang on."_

Portia began singing with him: " _Don't let yourself go. Because everybody cries. And everybody hurts, sometimes."_

"I sang that song to myself every night," Portia said. "For four years. I tried to keep your memory alive by singing that song, and it worked. I thought you were dead but that song helped my heart heal. Then Kirk told us that you were alive but you'd betrayed us. Then I felt ashamed and angry that I'd tried to keep your memory alive."

"Portia…"

"I heard you talking to Oliver. He told you what losing you did to me, right?"

"Yes…"

"I never want to feel like that again."

Perry paused, wrestling with several things in his head that he wanted to say. "Considering everything, you're being very civil."

"That's because I know that you mean nothing to me now," Portia said. "But I still don't want to talk to you."

With that, she rolled over in her bed and faced the wall. Perry stayed for a few minutes more before he left. Portia was glad to see him leave; she wasn't sure how long she would have been able to hide the tears flowing down her face.

…

 **Poor Portia :( well, she's kind of the bad guy, so XD**

 **Also: I highly HIGHLY recommend looking up the song Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. It is literally the foundation on which this story was built, and it even features in this chapter (and it will feature in future chapters/stories) so listen to it a few times. It's really good :)**


	8. A Twisted Memory

Perry went back to his office and began typing up a report on the battle, as all agents were required to do. But when he wrote about watching Pinky get injured, he had to stop. That was when he decided to call it a day and go home.

He took his rocketcar home this time. He parked it in his lair and took the tube up into Phineas and Ferb's bedroom, which he found empty. He could hear construction noises coming from the garage so he assumed that the boys were working on some new project. Even though it was only six in the evening, Perry felt exhausted from the battle so he got straight into bed and slept.

…

 _"_ _Hey Perry, c'mere!" called Portia's voice._

 _A two-year-old Perry ran out of the shared bedroom and into the corridor, where he found Portia sitting cross-legged beside a golden retriever dog and an ocelot. "This is Georgia and Oliver."_

 _"_ _I haven't seen you guys before," Perry said thoughtfully. "Have you been here the whole time?"_

 _"_ _Yeah, we used to hang around with Bianca the Badger," Oliver said as if that explained everything._

 _But it did explain everything. Highly skilled Bianca the Badger had basically collected the five most skilled Taskers—apparently including Georgia and Oliver—into her own group and used them to gain favour for herself. Until two days ago when Bianca had been badly punished for disobeying a direct order from Kirk and she hadn't survived the punishment._

 _"_ _Oh right," Perry said quietly. "Portia and I have been on our own for just over two years now."_

 _"_ _I wanted to ask you if they could join our group," Portia said to Perry._

 _Perry felt torn. He was always up for meeting new people, but he absolutely loved the fact that Portia and he were always alone. But the former won over the latter._

 _"_ _Absolutely," Perry smiled. "Welcome to our group of friends."_

 _Georgia and Oliver beamed._

 _They chatted for a couple of hours; this was a very rare day off for the Taskers. Soon, a sharp whistle sounded throughout the base, followed by a bell._

 _"_ _A battle!" Portia said eagerly, clapping her hands together in delight. "This is going to be fun!"_

 _Perry was a bit less eager. "We haven't been training for long," he said doubtfully._

 _"_ _Don't be such a spoilsport, come on!"_

 _Portia got up and grabbed Perry's wrist. "Coming?" she demanded of Georgia and Oliver._

 _"_ _Oh, we're coming," Georgia said, both she and Oliver looking just as excited about this as Portia._

 _Portia dragged Perry after all the other Taskers, who were gathering in the entrance hall of the base. Everyone waited in a tightly packed crowd with anticipation._

 _Kirk Kennedy came and stood in front of the doors, holding a megaphone. "Everyone, Kegan's robots are attacking again. If you get captured, you will be punished when released. If you get hurt, you will be punished. If you get killed…well, try not to get killed."_

 _Perry gulped. This wasn't his first battle but Kegan's robots were formidable foes._

 _The doors suddenly opened and Kirk was lifted up by a platform on wires as the crowd of animals surged forwards. Portia was still holding Perry's wrist so she was dragging Perry along. No sooner had he got outside than Perry saw a massive crowd of robots with arm guns, shooting at them. The Taskers attacked them with all their strength._

 _Portia let go of Perry's arm as she kicked an advancing robot. On her other side, Georgia and Oliver fought two more robots with their teeth and claws respectively. Perry punched one of the robots as hard as he could but the robot suddenly grabbed him with its claw hand and pushed Perry into the ground, stunning him. It held him down while he struggled._

 _A scream caught his ears. He twisted his head and saw that Georgia had been shot in the back by a robot. She fell to the ground and didn't get up again. A few metres away, a heavy claw hit Oliver on the head and sent him down too. He didn't move either._

 _Perry searched wildly for Portia and found her engaged in combat with another robot. Just a second after he spotted her, the robot's energy beam shot her through the chest. She let out a piercing scream and fell backwards in what seemed to Perry like slow motion. Perry hollered her name as she hit the floor but, like Georgia and Oliver, she didn't move._

 _Perry felt sick. All three of his friends had been killed, it was like a nightmare._

 _"_ _Portia! PORTIA!"_

…

Perry shot into a sitting position, sweating and breathing heavily. It was dark outside; he could just see the light of the street lamp outside his house. From the looks of things, the boys were in their beds, asleep.

Perry got up from his bed and headed downstairs, before going outside and lying under the oak tree in the backyard, the cool air helping him to calm down.

He didn't understand it. The first part of the dream had been something that had really happened in real life: him meeting Georgia and Oliver. He remembered that battle too but the end of the dream had been different. Of course, Portia, Georgia, and Oliver had not been killed; they were currently sitting in prison cells in OWCA's base. He didn't understand why the nightmare had altered the end of the battle. What had really happened was they had shorted and/or defeated all the robots and Kirk had actually captured Kegan Kennedy, who was Kirk's older brother. Now that he thought about it, Perry supposed that meant Kegan was Kane's older brother too. Kegan had lasted four days of torture before he had managed to escape.

After calming himself down, Perry headed back inside. He drank a glass of water and went back upstairs to his bed. The clock said the time was two am. He settled back into bed and closed his eyes again. This time, he had a completely dreamless sleep.

…

 **Who liked the flashback/nightmare?**


	9. Banter

Perry slept well. So well, in fact, that he overslept by quite a lot and only got into the office at midday.

He walked into his office and relaxed in his chair, still feeling rather tired, despite his long nap. He booted up the computer and began checking his emails. There was one very recent email from about an hour ago:

 **TO: owcaperrytheplatypus**

 **FROM: owcapinkythechihuahua**

 **SUBJECT: interrogation**

 **Hi Perry**

 **I came by your office about an hour ago (at time of sending) but you weren't there. Major Monogram wanted me to inform you that Terry and Tallulah have just finished a twelve hour interrogation of Portia the Platypus and he wants your input on the tape.**

 **Thanks**

 **Pinky**

Perry frowned. He hadn't been aware that any kind of interrogation had been planned for Portia, especially as it hadn't even been twenty-four hours since her capture. Normally, the procedure was for a prisoner to stay in the cell for at least a week before interrogation. He supposed that it was because the ARCHANGEL crisis was…well…a crisis.

He practically ran up to Major Monogram's office and burst through the door without knocking. He found Kane Kennedy standing in front of Major Monogram's desk, apparently giving a report. Kane shot his major a concerned look but Major Monogram just said, "We'll pick this up later, Kane."

Kane nodded. "Yes, sir." He gave Perry a friendly smile as he passed the platypus on his way out.

As the door closed, Major Monogram said sternly, "I hope you're not going to make a habit of bursting in here without knocking, Agent P."

"I'm sorry sir, but why did you interrogate Portia?"

" _I_ didn't."

"You know what I mean," Perry said exasperatedly. "Why did she have an interrogation in the first place?"

"Time is of the essence," his superior replied. "I think, and Kane agrees with me, that Kirk is planning something big, and I need to know what. I believe that Kirk has confided in some of his older and more experienced agents, like Portia the Platypus or Georgia the Golden Retriever or Oliver the Ocelot. Or you, if you had stayed."

Perry didn't like the look that Major Monogram was giving him. He actually glared at his superior. "Sir, are you insinuating that it would have been preferable if I had stayed with ARCHANGEL?"

"I'm not insinuating anything," Major Monogram replied calmly. "All I'm saying is that we need information as quickly as possible."

"So you had Terry and Tallulah spend twelve hours interrogating her?" Perry folded his arms. "Sir, even I could have told you that you're wasting your time with interrogation. I know Portia, and I know Georgia and Oliver. When they're in an interrogation room, they won't spill. They won't say a word."

"What are you saying, Agent P?"

"With all due respect, I believe I can get more out of Portia in a ten minutes chat outside her prison cell than you can get in a week of interrogation."

Major Monogram considered this. "You really think you can make her talk?"

"I'm sure I can persuade her to open up about some things," Perry said. "I think, deep down inside, she wants to trust me again. I know she probably won't let herself because she thinks I betrayed her but if I talk to her enough she might open up enough to give us some information that we can use."

His superior eyed him. "You do know that if she finds out you're using her for information, she will definitely never trust you again."

"I know," Perry said, hanging his head.

Major Monogram gave a sympathetic smile. "I know confronting your past must be hard for you, Agent P, but I want you to know that I and OWCA are truly grateful for your cooperation."

Perry could only nod.

…

Later in the day, Perry was in his office, finally finishing his report, when someone knocked on the door. He turned and saw the orange platypus standing in the doorway. His face automatically broke into a weak smile. "Hey Pansy."

"Hello, my little war hero," grinned Pansy, coming further into the office. "How you holding up?"

"Could be better, could be worse."

"I get that." Pansy began massaging Perry's shoulders. "Hey, you know what will cheer you up?"

Perry frowned. "No. What?"

"Visiting Pinky in the hospital wing. Apollo told me he's awake now and recovering fast."

"Really?" Perry smiled again. "That would be great. You want to come with?"

"That's why I was asking, numpty," Pansy laughed.

She took Perry's hand and pulled him to his feet. "Come on," she said. "Let's go."

Perry let Pansy drag him to the medical bay, where they saw Pinky sitting up in his bed, reading a book, which he put away when he spotted the two platypuses. Perry smiled as he approached his best friend's bed. "How are you feeling?"

"Pretty good, considering I almost died." Pinky matched Perry's smile. "What about you? I heard from Apollo that some female platypus kicked you in the head."

"She did," chuckled Perry, before his brain reminded him who "some female platypus" was. "She did," he repeated, this time not chuckling.

"Is everything okay?" Pinky frowned. "You don't look happy all of a sudden."

"I'm fine," Perry reassured his friend. "So do you feel any different now that you've got Pansy's blood in your veins? Do you feel extra sarcastic? Hyper? Non compos mentis?"

"I don't know what that last one means," Pinky said, laughing as Pansy elbowed Perry in the ribs.

"It basically means insane," Perry explained, grinning. This earned him another elbow to the ribs from Pansy. "Ow, Pan. I was joking."

"Since when do you call me Pan?" Pansy folded her arms.

Perry shrugged defensively. "I don't know. What's with all the questions?"

"I only asked you one."

"Well whoopee for you."

"Get a room," Pinky giggled. "You're arguing like an old married couple."

"Animals don't get married," Perry pointed out.

"It was a simile, Mr Pedantic." Pinky swatted Perry's ribs. Perry knew that the Chihuahua had meant to swat his shoulder but hadn't been able to reach. This fact made him grin.

"What are you grinning at?" Pinky asked.

"Your lack of ability to reach my shoulder," replied Perry, earning him another elbow from Pansy and another swat from Pinky. "Whoa, guys. Ease up on me, I'm delicate."

" _I'm_ the one who's delicate," complained Pinky. "I'm lying in a hospital bed after having been assaulted by a jaguar, with my best friend's girlfriend's blood in my veins."

"Maybe we should let you rest, then," Pansy said, suddenly serious.

Pinky shook his head. "It's fine," he said. "I'm not tired." He stifled a yawn.

Apollo suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "I saw that," he said accusingly. "I said you could only have visitors until you felt tired."

"Curse you and your eagle eyes," Pinky said, weakly shaking his fist.

Perry and Pansy laughed. "Rest up, buddy." Perry patted Pinky's shoulder. Then he and Pansy left the hospital bay.

"I'm glad Pinky's okay," Perry said. He was about to say something else when he caught sight of the look Pansy was giving him. "…what?"

"It's time for you to come clean about your relationship with Portia," said Pansy, folding her arms.

Perry hesitated. "It's…a bit hard to explain."

"Then you're going to take me down to see her and I'll see for myself."

Perry grimaced. "I'm not sure that's the best idea."

But he could see from Pansy's face that his girlfriend wasn't going to back down on this. He sighed. "Okay. Time for you to meet Portia."

…

 ***le gasp* PANSY IS GOING TO MEET PORTIA!**

 **Also: I think the banter between Perry, Pansy, and Pinky was one of the most fun things I've ever written XD**


	10. Pansy and Portia

Perry was feeling more than apprehensive about this but he dutifully took his girlfriend into the cells. Georgia was awake now, and she actually snarled at Perry as he passed.

"Hi Georgia," he said quietly.

Georgia just snarled again. "Well, if it isn't the betrayer. The traitor. The breaker of hearts. The destroyer of trust."

Pansy was confused as to why Perry was just standing there and taking the name calling. Usually he would lash out at this dog and make sure she never did it again. But since Perry was just standing there, Pansy decided to take matters into her own hands. She hit the glass with her fist and snapped, "Don't talk to my boyfriend like that!"

Georgia put on a mock-surprised face. "Oh, well, since your authority is so much higher than mine with your status as Perry's boyfriend, I guess I better concede defeat."

Pansy may have been emotional and prone to jealousy but she definitely was not stupid. She recognised the sarcasm easily. "My authority isn't higher than yours because I'm Perry's boyfriend, my authority is higher than yours because I'm an OWCA agent and you're just some animal who's being used by their owner."

Perry winced and covered his eyes with his paw. "Why did you have to say that…?"

"What's she going to do?" crowed Pansy. "She's in a cage."

Georgia suddenly leapt at the glass and barked at Pansy, who didn't show any signs of fear except for the fact that she took a step back from the glass. "Sit!" commanded Pansy, jabbing her finger at Georgia.

With a look that was half-smug, half-sneering, Georgia padded on all fours back to her bed and leapt onto it. She curled up and lay down, facing away from them.

Perry gently took Pansy's wrist and led her down the corridor towards Portia's cell. He looked inside and found Portia lying in the exact same position as she had been yesterday. If he hadn't known about the interrogation, he would have assumed that she just had not moved in over twenty-four hours.

He knocked on the glass. "Portia?"

"What do you want?" snapped Portia, not moving her head.

"I want you to talk to me," Perry replied, putting both his hands on the glass. "That's what I really want. But right now, I've brought someone for you to meet."

Portia's head turned, she gave Pansy the briefest of looks, and turned her head back. Pansy felt insulted by this. "Excuse me, I am Perry's boyfriend."

This actually got a reaction out of Portia. She shot up like she'd been stung and stared at Perry. "What?"

Pansy folded her arms and gave Portia a mock-friendly look. "That's right." She made Perry link arms with her. "We're going out. Boyfriend/girlfriend. An item. A couple."

Portia continued to stare at Perry, who was getting a little uncomfortable under her glare. "It's true," he offered. "We're going out."

"For how long?" Portia whispered.

"Two years now," Pansy replied smugly.

Portia clutched her chest and stared at the floor in shock. "So while I mourned you and missed you, for one whole year, you were dating this…this… _platypus!"_

Perry felt a stab of shame in his gut but he pushed it away determinedly. It wasn't his fault that he was trying to move on; he hadn't known that Portia had thought he was dead and he hadn't thought that he would ever see her again.

Portia's reaction to Pansy made Perry feel a little angry. "Why do you care?" he snapped. "You said you feel nothing for me now. Why do you care who I'm going out with?"

Portia apparently didn't hear him. She lay on the bed on her back again and ignored Perry.

Pansy couldn't believe that Perry could ever have had feelings for this pathetic platypus. "You're not good enough for him, you know that, right?"

"Quit while you're ahead," muttered Perry, nudging Pansy.

But Pansy pressed on: "You clearly don't—or didn't—love him enough because you don't respect his life choices. Perry and I are on the same side and we're more compatible, so we're a better match."

"Maybe shut up now," Perry muttered.

But Pansy delivered the final blow: "Besides, Perry could never love such a pathetic platypus like you."

Portia suddenly shot up and managed to rip her bed off the wall. With an angry yell, she flung it at the glass, making Perry drag Pansy backwards in fright and fear. Luckily, the glass was strong and it didn't show any signs of being damaged.

Perry quickly dragged Pansy down the corridor. "You really shouldn't have said that."

"But it's true." Pansy dug her heels in and forced Perry to stop. "What is your relationship with her?"

"I don't want to talk about it." Perry tried to continue walking again but Pansy stopped him again.

"You're going to tell me."

"I don't have to tell you anything."

"What are you afraid of?" demanded Pansy. "What are you so afraid of that you can't even tell your girlfriend where you met that girl?"

"Portia and I were both members of ARCHANGEL, okay?" Perry snapped suddenly. "We fought alongside each other for five years. Her company was the only thing that kept me sane when ARCHANGEL's handlers hurt me and pushed me way past my physical limits. The only thing we had was each other, apart from my two other friends, and we thought we loved each other until one day ARCHANGEL pushed me too far and I ran away from my old life and away from Portia, who I never thought I would see again."

There was a pause as the two platypuses gazed at each other.

"You never told me you used to fight for ARCHANGEL," said Pansy, frowning.

"I was trying to forget my past and move on," Perry said. "Leaving ARCHANGEL behind was the best decision I ever made, even if that decision was technically made for me. The problem is that I really do care about you, Pansy, but Portia was my childhood best friend and first love. My brain knows I can't be with both of you but my heart doesn't want to accept it."

"Well, until you sort your heart out, I think we should break up."

"What?" gasped Perry.

Pansy didn't look happy either. She grimaced. "Look, Perry, I just think that you're more likely to choose correctly if there's no bias. Even though I get jealous easily, I only want you to be happy. I do believe that you'll be happiest with me but I don't want to force you to make your decision too soon. Do you understand?"

Perry nodded sadly. "I do understand."

"I will wait for however long you need to decide that I'm the right one for you," Pansy said, making a stab of irritation hit Perry's stomach. "But for now, I'm going to go home."

Perry nodded again and watched her leave. It kind of irritated Perry that Pansy had the arrogance to believe that Perry was automatically going to choose her, but he had to admit that there was a real possibility of him choosing Pansy over Portia, especially since the latter hated him. Especially now. Taking Pansy to see Portia had clearly been a mistake.

Or had it been?

…

 **Who do you hate more: Portia or Pansy? XD XD**


	11. Truth

Perry had a small idea as to how he could get Portia to open up to him but he knew he couldn't try it now; she was much too wound up. And besides, she'd probably need to be moved to a different cell while they fixed the bed in her cell. He hoped they wouldn't punish her too harshly for that.

He decided to go back to the hospital wing to see Pinky. It was only an hour or so since he had last seen his best friend but he figured that he didn't really have anything else to do, since Pansy had broken up with him.

When he entered the hospital wing, Apollo spotted him and gave him a look.

"Am I okay to visit Pinky again?" Perry asked.

"I suppose. How come? You were in here just an hour ago."

"I've had a bit of a rough hour," Perry said simply.

Apollo raised his eyebrows but he didn't comment.

Perry walked over to Pinky's bed and found the Chihuahua lying in his bed, looking asleep. Perry sat in the chair next to the bed and leant back in exhaustion.

"Are you okay?" came Pinky's voice.

Perry studied his friend. "Sorry, I thought you were asleep."

"You look rough," Pinky continued, pretending Perry hadn't spoken. "How come you're back again?"

"Pansy broke up with me."

Pinky stared at Perry. "Seriously? What happened?"

"I don't know if I can explain," Perry said, looking away. "I'll have to explain my past in order to explain why Pansy and I broke up."

"And you don't want to tell me your past," Pinky guessed. Perry nodded miserably. Pinky placed his hand on Perry's. "It's okay, Perry. You're my best friend, and I hope you know you can tell me anything. But if you don't feel comfortable-."

"No, it's about time I told you anyway," Perry sighed. "Besides, if I don't tell you, you'll probably find out from someone else." He took a deep breath. "Have you heard of ARCHANGEL?"

Pinky nodded. "Major Monogram got me up to speed. They're the evil organisation who attacked us. Apparently they use animal operatives like us."

Perry nodded. "Well…for the first five years of my life, I was raised by—and fought for—ARCHANGEL."

Pinky's eyes widened. "What?"

"They took me away from my parents when I was a few days old and they trained me up for five years to fight for them, which I did. The training was hard and gruelling; we were punished if we didn't do things correctly, whether that be broken rules or not-mastered moves. During those five years, I made three friends: Portia the Platypus—the one who knocked me out—Georgia the Golden Retriever, and Oliver the Ocelot. But five years ago, I accidentally broke a rule and I was punished harshly. I tried to stand up for myself but then I was given an even harsher punishment for it. So I ran. I ran for ages, before Monty Monogram found me and his father made me a member of OWCA."

Pinky was silent for a moment. Perry stopped to give his best friend time to digest all the information. "So you fought for ARCHANGEL," he said eventually.

"Five years ago," Perry quickly said. "I'm not at all loyal to them anymore."

"I never said you were."

Perry felt grateful that Pinky didn't doubt his allegiance. "Major Monogram thinks I am. He actually asked me to my face if I still had any kind of loyalty towards ARCHANGEL, as if they _weren't_ the people who abused me for five years."

"You still stayed for five years," Pinky pointed out.

"Firstly, I had nowhere else to go," Perry said. "Secondly, I had Portia, Georgia, and Oliver, and the tasks they sent us on were actually quite fun."

He stopped himself, hoping Pinky wouldn't ask about the tasks. Luckily, he only asked, "So why did you and Pansy break up?"

"I took her down to see Portia," Perry replied. "Because she demanded me to. Pansy kind of angered Portia, who ended up throwing her bed at the glass."

"But the beds are attached to the wall," Pinky said, frowning.

"Exactly. Anyway, Portia and I…well…we were basically childhood sweethearts."

"Ah." Pinky sucked air through his teeth. "Bet Pansy loved that."

"Yeah," Perry said slowly. He told Pinky what Pansy had said after their visit.

"She's pretty confident," commented Pinky. "She's _very_ confident that you're going to choose her."

"I don't know what's going on at the moment," Perry confessed. "Pansy loves me and I have a lot of feelings for Pansy. Portia hates me because I "betrayed" her but I also have strong feelings for Portia. My head and my heart for once are both confused."

Pinky chuckled, which threw Perry. "What?"

"I was going to say "listen to your heart" but then you said that."

"Oh." Perry paused. "So what do you think I should do?"

"Listen to your heart."

"I'm serious."

Pinky sighed. "Look, go talk to Portia alone and see if you can get her to open up. If you show her your side of things and why you chose to join OWCA, maybe she'll develop feelings for you again."

"Maybe." That actually cheered Perry up. "You know, that might work. Thanks."

"Are you sure you don't know who you want to be with?" Pinky asked dubiously.

"I'm sure. Why?" Perry frowned.

"It's just that…you seem to be wanting to make a lot of effort for Portia."

"That doesn't mean I'm going to choose her," Perry said. "It would mean a lot to me if we were just friends again."

"Trust me, if you were in love once and you try to be "just friends" now, it isn't going to work."

Perry sighed. "Thanks for helping."

He got up from his chair and left the hospital wing. He went into the deserted waiting room and flopped on his face onto the sofa. Why did life have to be so hard? Pansy, Portia, love, hate. Why did it all have to be so complicated?

All of a sudden, Pansy came running into the room, stopping when she saw Perry. "Perry, there you are!"

Perry twisted round to look at her. She looked like she'd been running for a while, and her face displayed both fear and urgency. "What is it?"

"Portia's escaped!"

…

 ***le gasp***


	12. Escape Attempt

"We've got extra guards down in the cell and almost every available agent is looking for her," Pansy reported to Perry as they both sat outside Major Monogram's office. "Major Monogram's having the grounds checked too, though she won't have been able to escape over the electrified fence."

"How did this happen?" Perry asked. "What were you even doing in the cells?"

"I…" Pansy appeared embarrassed. "I was going down to apologise to Portia."

Perry stared at her in shock. "Who are you and what have you done with Pansy?"

Pansy slapped Perry's shoulder in embarrassment. "Look, this is really hard for me to say, okay?"

Perry nodded and made a gesture inviting Pansy to continue.

"I realised that she helped you get through some difficult times and that it must have been very hard seeing you with someone else, so I wanted to apologise for what I said. I know now that it was out of line and overly harsh. But when I got there, I saw that she was being moved by Ellie the Eagle and Harry the Hyena."

"Because she threw her bed against the glass," Perry stated.

"I felt bad when I saw that," Pansy confessed. "Because that was also my fault. Anyway, Ellie was just escorting Portia from her cell to the one opposite when Portia broke her handcuffs, knocked Ellie and Harry out, and rushed past me. I wasn't fast enough to stop her."

Perry considered this. "She must still be in the building," he said. "I know Portia. She's going to dart from hiding place to hiding place until she's able to escape. But the exits are all sealed off now. She won't have any way out." He paused. "I'm going to get a taser."

Pansy followed Perry to the armoury, where he picked out a taser gun and held it in his hands. "I don't want to hurt her," he explained. "I still do care about her."

"I know you do," Pansy said softly.

All of a sudden, something hit into Perry and knocked the taser out of his hands. Before Perry could move, Portia was standing a few metres in front of him, clutching Pansy's arms with her left arm and holding Pansy in front of her own body. She had a dagger in her right hand and she was angling this towards Pansy's neck.

Perry made a move to retrieve his taser but Portia immediately tightened her grip on Pansy. "Don't you dare move!"

"Portia, let her go!" Perry shouted in alarm, straightening up.

"This is the platypus who you replaced me with?" yelled Portia. "She's pathetic! She can't even defend herself!"

"You ambushed me!" Pansy complained, but she was silenced by Portia touching the dagger against her neck.

"Portia, please, just think about what you're doing," Perry begged. His eyes flickered towards the taser on the ground and he took a step towards Portia, who didn't move.

"I won't kill her," Portia snapped. "All I want is to be let go."

"The feeling's mutual," hissed Pansy, earning her a hit to the arm with the butt of Portia's dagger.

"I just want to leave!" Portia shouted desperately. "That's all I want! I want to forget this nightmare ever happened, I want to forget that you betrayed us!"

"Just let Pansy go and put down the knife so we can talk about this," Perry said quietly, holding out his palms toward Portia as if trying to tame a wild animal. He took another step forwards. "We can work something out and send you home."

"You don't understand!" Portia wailed. "The new punishment for getting captured is execution! I can't go back to ARCHANGEL or they'll kill me! My only chance is to escape from here and try to find a new life out there!"

Perry paused, thinking. This changed everything. He took one final step forwards. If he moved quickly now, he might be able to grab the taser.

Everything happened at once. Pansy writhed in Portia's grasp, twisting Portia's arm rather painfully. She didn't let go of Pansy but the distraction allowed Perry to do a forward roll, grab the taser, end up on one-knee, and shoot Portia with the taser. Portia let go of Pansy, who fell out of the way, and began screaming in pain as the electric current shot through her. A few seconds later, she collapsed on the ground.

Perry threw the taser away and hurried to Pansy's side. The orange platypus was lying propped up on her side, breathing heavily. "Are you okay?"

"She was going to kill me," Pansy said shakily.

"She wasn't. Portia isn't a killer."

Pansy looked like she was about to cry. "It was still scary. And just after I was going to apologise to her."

Perry took Pansy into a hug, feeling the platypus shaking in his embrace. Pansy buried her face into Perry's chest. "I still forgive her, though."

Perry was surprised. "Really? You forgive her for threatening your life?"

"For some reason, I can't be angry with her," Pansy sniffled. "I just feel sorry for her because she doesn't want to stay here but she can't go back home or they'll kill her." Pansy paused. "Is ARCHANGEL really that barbaric?"

"ARCHANGEL has certainly changed a lot since I was there," admitted Perry. "But yes, they certainly are that savage. I…I should know."

Pansy's shaking subsided a bit at that but she didn't question. She gently pulled away from Perry and said, "We'd better tell Major Monogram that we—you—defeated Portia."

"Yeah," Perry agreed, standing up. He helped Pansy to her feet, and then was surprised when Pansy kissed Perry briefly on the beak. The kiss only lasted a second or so but it had been the first time they had kissed since they broke up which, admittedly, had only been earlier that day.

As Pansy left to inform Major Monogram, Perry gazed sadly down at Portia's still body. He knew he should have expected her to try something like this but it still hurt to see his oldest friend threaten his—admittedly now ex—girlfriend.

…

 **General A/N: so has this chapter helped anyone forgive Pansy for the harsh things she said to Portia? Does anyone now dislike Portia? Tell me in the reviews!**


	13. Scarred

Major Monogram insisted that Perry and Pansy go home, so that was what Perry did. Just like last night, he went to bed very early.

He woke up at eight the next morning and went back into OWCA. He headed straight for the hospital wing to fill Pinky in on what had happened and found the Chihuahua reading his book in bed.

"Hey Perry. I heard about Portia's escape attempt," he said.

Perry almost flung himself down into the chair and slammed his head against the table, making Pinky drop his book in fright. "Perry, calm down!"

Perry just gave a whine. "I hate life."

"You can't be much worse than me," Pinky said in amusement.

Perry stared at his friend. "I wish I was in your position. _That's_ how bad it is."

Pinky grimaced. "Okay, I see it's bad. But why is it so bad?"

"Seeing Portia bring a dagger to Pansy's throat forced me to remember a traumatic experience of my own, one I still carry reminders of to this day." Perry unconsciously rubbed his left bicep.

Pinky understood immediately. "Your scar."

Perry nodded solemnly.

"How…how did you get your scar?" Pinky asked hesitantly.

Perry tipped his head back. "You don't have to tell me," Pinky added hurriedly.

"It's fine." Perry sighed. "I need to tell someone anyway or I'm going to explode."

…

 _One-year-old Perry was lying on his back, propped up on his elbows. He had tears in his eyes as he looked up into the angry face of Kirk Kennedy and tried not to show his terror._

 _"_ _The one thing I ask is obedience, Perry," said Kirk, sounding frighteningly calm, his face displaying just a fraction of the anger Perry knew he felt. "There is a curfew for a reason and I expect Taskers to stick to it."_

 _"_ _But sir, Leslie was crying!" Perry protested. He knew Kirk could understand what he was saying because his superior was wearing a special translator that translated all animal languages "She was in pain and I just needed to help her! I was only out of bed for-."_

 _Kirk calmly held up his hand, causing Perry to stop talking in fear. "I ask one thing, Perry. Obedience. That's all I ask, you know that." Perry trembled as Kirk advanced on him. "But you disobeyed the curfew."_

 _"_ _No, please!" Perry begged, scrambling backwards a metre or so._

 _"_ _Stay still!" Kirk suddenly yelled._

 _Perry froze in terror, a couple of tears flowing down his face. Kirk causally unstrapped a dagger from his belt and played with the point of it. "You know the rules. You disobey, you get punished. And this is your third infraction."_

 _"_ _Please, no…!" whispered Perry._

 _"_ _Now, normally the procedure is execution."_

 _Perry thought he was going to pass out from terror. Kirk crouched down next to Perry and held the tip of the dagger against Perry's neck. The poor platypus was hyperventilating in terror as he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for it to happen._

 _"_ _But you're one of my best and I don't want to lose you."_

 _All of a sudden, Perry felt searing pain in his left bicep. He let out a muted scream of pain and clutched his arm, and when he pulled his paw away, it was wet with blood. Perry stared in terror at Kirk, whose dagger was now dripping red. "Do not do it again," Kirk said, quiet and dangerous._

 _Perry nodded hurriedly but Kirk then slammed the butt of his dagger into Perry's forehead, knocking him backwards. He fell to the floor, still holding his arm, but his vision suddenly went black._

 _The next thing he knew, someone was shaking him. "Perry!"_

 _Perry opened his eyes blearily and saw the form of a teal platypus swim into view. "Portia…?" he slurred._

 _"_ _Oh my god, are you okay?" Portia asked shrilly. "I thought you were dead!"_

 _Portia took Perry's hand and helped him sit up, causing him to let out a yelp of pain and clutch his arm again. The wound was still bleeding._

 _Portia brought out a handkerchief from her fur pocket and pressed it against Perry's wound, slowing the bleeding. "I think it's going to scar," she said quietly. "I'm sorry."_

 _"_ _I deserved it," Perry said firmly, though he couldn't suppress a shudder at the memory of Kirk calmly holding the knife against Perry's neck._

 _"_ _Nobody deserves this," Portia said._

 _Perry leant against Portia's shoulder and let himself cry while she held him._

 _He had realised something today. He couldn't let anybody get to him. If they saw him cry, they would think he was nothing more than a weakling. Perry was going to show them. He was going to show them all that he was not a weakling._

 _"_ _I'm going to have a scar?" he said aloud._

 _Perry felt Portia nod._

 _"_ _At least I'll always remember this day. The day I realised I'm going to make them remember my name forever."_

 _Portia let out a chuckle. "That's the Perry I know and love."_

 _"_ _I love you too, Portia," Perry said, and it was easy for him to say. He didn't really understand the romantic kind of love; he meant that he loved Portia as an older sister (it had been established already that Portia was two days older than him)._

 _"_ _Platypuses have to stick together, right?"_

 _Perry smiled and snuggled his face into Portia's shoulder. "Right."_

…

"That must have been terrifying," Pinky said sympathetically.

"It was made worse by the fact that Portia's actions today reminded me of Kirk's when I got the scar," Perry said, looking at the floor. "Terrorising someone weaker and more defenceless than you. With a dagger. I thought he was going to kill me. Then today…I had the same feeling. I thought Portia was going to kill Pansy, and it terrified me because it brought me back to the day where Portia and said…she said…"

""Nobody deserves this"," Pinky finished. "Right?"

Perry nodded numbly.

"Well, time changes people enough but traumatic events make changes in ways we can't always foresee," Pinky said wisely.

"So…you mean that she changed because she lost me?"

Pinky nodded. "That's right."

Perry stood up slowly. "Well, then my next move has been made clear to me. Thanks for listening, Pinks."

"Hey, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

Perry nodded. "Thank you."

Perry left the hospital wing, various thoughts running through his head. He had told Pinky the truth: the thing he had to do next was now apparent to him.

He knew exactly what to do, and he wasn't dreading it.

…

 ***le gasp* man, I'm doing that a lot recently XD**

 **Also: anyone feel sorry for poor Perry?**


	14. Everybody Hurts

**Author's Note: the song Everybody Hurts by R.E.M. is going to feature in this chapter in full so I highly recommend listening to it while you read this chapter.**

…

Perry went down to the cells again. This time, Maggie the Macaw and Harry the Hyena were on guard, ignoring each other again. They always got on each other's nerves, so Perry often wondered why Major Monogram always put them on guard duty together. They let him through without any problem.

He saw that Georgia and Oliver were both awake. Georgia snarled at him yet again and Oliver let out a snort but Perry ignored both of them and continued on to the cell opposite Portia's old cell, finding her in there. She was sitting with her back against the glass, facing towards her bed.

"Portia?"

"Go away." Portia's voice was hard.

"I don't blame you for trying to escape," Perry tried. "It's what I'd do. And Pansy forgives you too."

"I don't want your forgiveness," spat Portia. "I just want to leave this place."

Perry knelt down on the other side of the glass in front of Portia's back. Getting an idea, he took a deep breath, opened his beak, and sang, " _When your day is long and the night, the night is yours alone_."

He saw Portia's head turn slightly as he continued, " _When you're sure you've had enough…of this life…well hang on_."

He continued singing and Portia joined in with the next verse: " _Don't let yourself go, because everybody cries. And everybody hurts, sometimes. Sometimes everything is wrong, now it's time to sing along_."

Perry allowed Portia to sing: " _When your day is night alone_ ," while he sang the backing: " _Hold on, hold on_."

" _If you feel like letting go_ ," she sang.

" _Hold on_ ," he echoed.

" _If you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on_ ," both of them sang.

Portia turned and faced Perry. She placed her right hand on the glass on her side and Perry placed his own left hand on top of it on his side. " _Everybody hurts, take comfort in your friends. Everybody hurts. Don't throw your hand, oh no. Don't throw your hand. If you feel like you're alone, no, no, no, you are not alone."_

Perry smiled at Portia, who gave a small but beautiful smile back. " _If you're on your own in this life, the days and nights are long. When you think you've had too much of this life, well hang on. Well, everybody hurts sometimes, everybody cries. Everybody hurts sometimes, and everybody hurts sometimes."_

As they stopped singing, Portia visibly sighed and got up off the floor. Perry also stood up and watched Portia go to her bed and sit down on the edge.

"You remembered all the words," Portia stated.

"Of course I did," Perry replied. "You're not the only one who sang that song aloud every night in order to keep memories alive."

Portia looked incredibly touched. "You did too?"

Perry smiled and nodded. As Portia smiled back at him, Perry decided to take a risk. "I'm going to take you out."

Portia stared at Perry. "What?"

"I'm going to take you outside and we're going to spend some time together. I know you want to leave but my job won't let you so this is the best I can do."

Tears filled Portia's eyes. "You'd really do that for me?"

"I need you to understand that you can't get away," Perry said seriously. "An electrified fence surrounds the complex and there are guards at every gate so you can't leave, but I can at least take you outside for some fresh air. If you want."

Portia nodded quickly. "Yes, yes please!"

Perry also nodded. "Okay, then. Wait here for a minute."

Perry went over to the control panel by the door and pressed the release button for Portia's cage. He quickly went back to the cell and found Portia standing up with her wrists towards Perry, who gave her a serious look. "I'm going to trust you without handcuffs."

Portia stared at him. "Are you sure you won't regret that?"

"Make sure you don't do anything to make me regret it," Perry said.

Portia nodded slowly. Perry took her hand and led her through the door. Harry's eyes widened in alarm and Maggie opened her beak to say something but Perry gave them a stern look and said, "I've got this under control."

Maggie closed her beak and gave a nod. Harry looked a little less happy but he also nodded.

Perry took Portia up the stairs and towards the first floor. "I thought I could give you a little tour of OWCA before we go outside."

Portia looked a little nervous. "But all these agents know that I'm an enemy."

"They'll see that you're with me," Perry reassured her. "They trust me. I don't mean to boast but I'm OWCA's top agent."

"You don't mean to boast and yet you do anyway," grinned Portia.

Perry rolled his eyes amusedly. "Okay, Mrs Smarty-Pants." He pushed open the door to the office floor. "Welcome to OWCA."

…

 ***squeals* PORTIA'S NOT TOTALLY EVIL ANYMORE! Well…I:}**


	15. Yet Another Betrayal

Portia gaped at the sight of the office floor. She saw agents walking around with fedoras on, chatting, laughing, sharing stories. It reminded her of ARCHANGEL except a lot more relaxed and a lot less stressful. Also, there wasn't a trainer at every corner with a dagger and a whip, waiting to punish every single infraction of the rules.

"I know I've seen this before when I escaped but that was evening and I was trying not to be seen. This…this is amazing!"

Perry smiled at the look of wonder on her face. "I'll take you to my office."

Portia stared at him. "You have your own office?"

"Every agent does. Come on."

Perry led Portia to his office. On their way, Perry's prediction came true: many agents gave Portia suspicious looks but they saw that Perry was with her and returned to whatever they were doing. The closest they came to a confrontation was when Portia accidentally bumped into a grizzly bear agent, who almost swiped Portia with his large paws until he spotted Perry.

When they finally got to the safety of Perry's office, Portia smiled and sat down in Perry's chair, swinging it round. "This is cute," she said. "You get to work in your own office?"

"Every day," Perry said. He grinned. "Believe me, the novelty wears off after two or three years."

Portia also grinned and examined the computer. "Nice," she said approvingly.

"Ready to go outside?" Perry asked her.

"Absolutely."

Perry took Portia's hand again and led her out of his office. "Oh, wait. Do you want to meet my best friend?"

Portia's face fell. "Your…best friend?"

Perry knew why she was acting like that. "I'm sorry, but Pinky has been my best friend for as long as you have. At the moment, he's my best friend."

Portia nodded like she was expecting that. "Fine."

Perry took Portia to the medical bay and found Apollo just coming out. He eyed Portia suspiciously and then passed them without saying a word. "That was Apollo, OWCA's doctor," Perry told Portia. "He doesn't like people who cause other people injury, and…well…you know…"

Portia understood but she wasn't happy about it. "Yeah, I know."

Perry took Portia in and over to Pinky's bed. The Chihuahua looked up as they came in and his eyes widened.

"Pinky, this is Portia."

Pinky just stared at Portia with an expression of both fear and shock on his face.

"Nice to meet you?" offered Portia.

"L-likewise," Pinky stammered. "Perry, this is completely against regulation!"

"She's not a bad person," Perry said pointedly. "I'm showing her around OWCA."

"This is against regulation!" hissed Pinky again. "You're going to be in a lot of trouble with Major Monogram."

Perry just narrowed his eyes. "I am aware of the risks, Pinky. I just wanted you to meet the person who has been best friends with me for the same amount of years as you have."

Pinky just returned to his book and ignored the two platypuses. Perry felt a stab of anger in his chest. "Fine. We're leaving."

Perry pulled Portia to the door and led her towards the front door. "This is the way outside."

He pushed open the door. Portia immediately had to shield her eyes from the bright sunlight but when she got used to the bright light, she let out a gasp of happiness. Birds were singing in the trees, there was a warm breeze on her fur, and she could taste the fresh air. She let go of Perry's hand and ran forwards. Perry made a move to go after her but he stopped when he saw that she was just feeling the grass under her feet. She flopped onto her back in the grass and made a movement as if she was making a snow angel. Perry laughed and lay down next to her on his back.

"I haven't experienced this in years," confessed Portia. "When I lost you, I didn't want to go outside anymore. When we had our playtimes, I just stayed inside. I haven't properly experienced the whole "grass" and "sunshine" and "fresh air" thing in a while. Excluding the battle, of course, because that wasn't for pleasure."

"Yeah," Perry said. "You know, we aren't the bad guys."

"Who isn't?"

"OWCA."

Portia frowned and looked away. Perry expanded, "We may seem like we're the bad guys but we're not. ARCHANGEL are."

"Perry, I know ARCHANGEL haven't been kind to us, but they're not bad."

"They are, though." Perry rolled onto his side and faced Portia properly, though the teal platypus still wouldn't look at him. "All those tasks they gave us five years ago? Vandalism, assault, theft, destruction of property."

"It was all necessary," Portia said. "Remember Kegan?"

"Kegan's different," Perry argued. "More often than not, Kegan was the one who attacked us first. What happened to him, by the way?"

"He attacks us just as regularly as he did before," Portia replied. "Last attack was just a few days before we were sent here, actually."

Perry took a deep breath and decided to take the proverbial plunge. "Is Kirk planning anything?"

Portia looked at Perry and frowned. "What do you mean?"

"Is he planning to attack us? Perform a jail break? Try and take over the Tri-State Area?"

Portia hesitated. "Well, I heard him telling some of the others a couple of weeks ago about some big plan that he was going to put into action, but I don't know what it was or even if it's still in development, so it can't be a jail break."

"You don't know anything else?" pressed Perry.

"I…I think he may be planning something to do with OWCA's agents," Portia confessed. "I don't know what it could be."

"Okay. Thanks."

Perry must have looked distracted because Portia narrowed her eyes and said, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you ask?"

"I-uh…"

At that moment, Pansy came over, sparing Perry from answering. "Perry, what's Portia doing out of prison?"

"Easy, Pansy. I brought her out for some fresh air."

But Pansy was glaring suspiciously at Portia. "It's against-."

"I know it's against regulations," Perry snapped. "And I don't care."

Portia's mind was still on their previous conversation. A nasty thought had occurred to her. "You just wanted information."

Perry turned to her in confusion. "What?"

"That's why you brought me out here and acted so nice to me." Portia jabbed a shaking finger into Perry's chest, which hurt. "You just wanted information! You pretended to be nice and you sang that song to me and made me feel like I could trust you again but I can't, can I? You were just using me for information!"

"Portia-." Perry reached for Portia's arm but she wrenched it away and backed up a step.

"Stay away from me!" she shrieked. "Traitor! I was just beginning to trust you again and you pulled a stunt like that! Do you deny it?"

Perry said nothing.

"I knew it," snarled Portia. "You were pretending to be nice to me so you could get information out of me. I hate you! I HATE YOU!"

She bolted for the security fence. Perry froze in shock. With incredibly good reflexes, Pansy quickly raced after Portia and tackled her before she reached the fence. Bringing out a pair of handcuffs, Pansy quickly cuffed the struggling teal platypus and called over Calvin the Cat and Danny the Dog, who took hold of the squirming platypus and began to march her back to prison.

Perry watched them go, taking all the verbal abuse that Portia was flinging his way. Pansy returned to Perry's side and put her arms around him. Perry couldn't stop the tears any longer. Letting them flow down his face, he buried his face in Pansy's shoulder.

He was a horrible person.

…

 ***cries***


	16. Every Action Has Consequences

Perry almost resigned on the spot.

He felt like a horrible person. Major Monogram had been right: Portia had caught Perry trying to get information out of her and he was certain now that she would never trust him again. There were only so many betrayals that a heart could take. The worst part was that Portia had actually begun trusting him again before he had blown it by asking her questions, the answers of which he had passed on to Major Monogram already. His boss definitely had NOT been happy when Perry had admitted that he had taken Portia out of the cells, even if he had gained some valuable information.

Perry retreated to his office, where he tried to concentrate on reading his emails but the tears in his eyes kept making his vision too blurry to concentrate so he went to Major Monogram and practically begged for a mission to keep his mind off things.

"Sorry, Agent P, but there aren't any missions at the moment, what with most of LOVEMUFFIN locked up in Steele Bay." Major Monogram consulted a piece of paper. "Actually, I could do with you doing guard duty down in the cells."

Perry grimaced. The last thing he wanted was to spend more time in the company of his former friends, especially Portia. "Is there nobody else who can do it instead?"

Major Monogram's face normally would have displayed a sympathetic expression, but since Perry had recently broken an important regulation, his tone had no sympathy whatsoever in it. "I know what happened earlier today has hit you hard, Agent P, but I need you to remain professional and take your turn on guard duty or it's not fair on the other agents."

Perry shot the desk a glare. _I'm sorry, sir, but it sounded like you just said that my professionalism and appearance around other agents are more important than my childhood best friend hating me and my past catching up to me in a horrific way._ But he said nothing aloud, instead choosing to simply nod numbly.

…

Perry was actually hitting his head against the wall. He could hear Oliver and Georgia yelling abuse at him. He had made the mistake of checking on his two friends, who had apparently heard about what had happened between Portia and Perry. Now they were screaming abuse at him every few seconds. And it really didn't help that he was on guard with the very professional Ellie the Eagle, who only told Perry to "just ignore it". But Perry couldn't ignore it. It was torture to him because it was his former friends who were yelling at him and it didn't seem like they were going to let up anytime soon. All the worse was that he knew he deserved it. He actually wished that he could hear Portia's angry voice too but she was silent. That meant she was truly hurt.

Ellie the Eagle wordlessly picked Perry up and moved him a few inches away from the wall so that he couldn't hit his head on it anymore.

"How does it feel to betray the only people who ever truly loved you?" came Oliver's angry voice.

Perry turned around and hit his head on the door.

"You're going to damage your brain," Ellie said in her normal monotonous voice.

"I-don't-care," Perry replied, punctuating every word with a hit against the door. "This-is-hurting-less-than-their-words."

"Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me," Ellie said.

"Look, Ellie!" Perry suddenly shouted. "Clearly that's not true! These people were my best friends for five years and now they've turned on me because I betrayed them! Listen to their words! They _have_ to be hurting me because hitting my head hard against the wall is less painful!

At that moment, a rhino agent came round the corner. Perry almost threw himself down at the rhino's feet. _"Please_ tell me you're here to take over from me," he begged loudly. "PLEASE!"

The rhino gave him an odd look and nodded, looking thoroughly taken aback when Perry promptly burst into tears and hugged his foot. "THANK YOU!"

The rhino gave Ellie a confused look. Ellie just shrugged back. Perry then took off running up the stairs and back onto the office floor. He closed the door and leant against it, breathing like he'd just run a marathon. Terry and Tallulah, whose offices were closest to the prison door, shot confused and slightly worried looks at him. "Perry?" Tallulah called. "Is everything okay?"

Having passed through his manic phase, Perry took a step forwards and promptly collapsed from the throbbing pain in his forehead. With hindsight, bashing his head against the wall had not been the best long-term decision. He felt two people helping him up. "Are you okay?" Terry's voice asked.

Perry felt himself be helped to a chair. He lay back in it and closed his eyes. "I don't know what to do, guys," he said shakily. "I really don't." He explained the whole thing: his past in ARCHANGEL, his near-regain of Portia's trust, and his disastrous guard duty.

"Poor you," Tallulah said sympathetically. "I can't imagine what you're going through."

"Don't worry," Terry said, rubbing Perry's arms. "We're here for you. And so's Pinky. We'll help you get through this."

…

Meanwhile, down in the cells, Oliver had managed to make a small hole in the glass, somehow. He didn't understand how Portia could throw her whole bed at the glass without it shattering and yet Oliver could make a small hole about the size of his paw in the glass with just his claws. As he worked on finding something to throw, Georgia was listening to Portia's sobs. She couldn't see her friend but she could definitely hear her.

"Portia, are you okay?" she called.

She saw Oliver stop whatever he was doing to hear Portia's reply: "I'm fine."

"That traitorous platypus has broken your heart for the last time, I promise," Oliver snarled. "I'm never going to let him hurt you again."

Georgia and Oliver waited for Portia to say something to that. They were both surprised when she said, "Is ARCHANGEL…bad?"

"Of course it isn't," Oliver replied, sounding surprised. "Why would we be bad? We're not the ones holding a dozen animals prisoner."

"But _we_ attacked _them_ ," Portia said, her voice sounding like it was shaking.

"Because Kirk believes they're a threat," Georgia retorted. "Why are you doubting so much about ARCHANGEL?"

"OWCA's better than ARCHANGEL," came Portia's reply. "It's more relaxed. There're no whippings or beatings. The people are friendly. You get to work flexible hours."

"I'm going to kill that platypus," Oliver snarled, pressing himself up against the glass so as to try to see Portia, but he failed. "He's filled your head with all sorts of stupid thoughts and doubts about ARCHANGEL. _We_ are your family. _We_ are all you have. We're going to protect you, okay? I think I've found a way to escape."

Oliver picked up a metal disk lying under his bed. It must have fallen from something but he didn't know what. He stuck his arm out through the hole and aimed carefully at the button that was used to open the cages. He knew he only had one shot at this. Even though his cell was nearest the button, he had restricted movement of his wrist. He threw the small metal disk and watched anxiously as it flew towards the button. He held his breath…

…and grinned.

…

 ***le gasp* XD**


	17. The Turning Point

When Perry felt up to it, he left Terry's office and went back to his own. He still had a throbbing headache and he knew it wouldn't go away for a long time. He lay back in his chair and hoped for a bit of sleep.

Instead, the emergency siren rang.

…

Oliver freed Georgia and Portia and cautiously opened the prison door. There were no guards out there. All three of them felt confused by this but they certainly weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Portia led the way through the office floor and towards the front door. They didn't meet any agents at all on their way there, which thoroughly confused them. They had been expecting some kind of struggle or fight, but there wasn't even anyone in sight. When Portia opened the front door, they saw why.

All of OWCA agents were embroiled in a massive battle outside on the grass. From the looks of things, they were fighting ARCHANGEL operatives; Portia spotted Leslie the Lemur tussling with an orange turtle a little way ahead of them, the ARCHANGEL wings brand on her back clearly visible.

"Guys, the security gate is open!" hissed Georgia.

Portia looked. It was true. The gate was indeed open, and with the massive battle going on, they would be able to slip out of the gate undetected.

Oliver took his friends' paws and pulled them along towards the gate. Just as they reached it, Portia dug her heels in and wrenched her hand out of Oliver's grip. The ocelot swung round to see why and found her staring at Lily the Lioness, who had pinned down a familiar teal platypus. "Perry…" Georgia heard Portia whisper. "He needs help."

"Leave him!" Oliver snarled. "He betrayed all of us. He broke your heart three times!"

"He needs help," Portia said, a bit louder. "I can't leave him. I-I love him."

"You still love him after everything he's done to you?" Oliver demanded. "He's made you hurt emotionally more than Kirk's made you hurt physically."

Portia turned to Oliver and displayed a determined face. "Everybody hurts," she said.

With that, she turned and ran towards the battle. Oliver and Georgia exchanged a look, torn. They needed to help their friend, but at the same time they knew they had to go now or they wouldn't have another chance. They stared after Portia, who made a flapping gesture with her paw as she ran, clearly indicating for them to go.

"Come on," Georgia said, pulling on Oliver's paw. "She can handle herself." She ran out of the gate.

Oliver took a bit longer; gazing at one the people—arguably _the_ person—he cared most about. He didn't want to leave her but she obviously wanted him to be free. "I hope you know what you're doing," he muttered, before he turned and ran after Georgia.

On the other side of the field, Perry could feel the life slowly being squeezed out of him by this lioness. She had one heavy paw on his lower stomach and one on his neck. She was flexing her claws on the latter paw, and that meant every few seconds Perry would get a sharp sting of a claw on his neck. He knew she was playing with him simply because she could; his head was still throbbing far too hard for him to fight back. It was the whole reason Perry had even been overpowered by her in the first place.

His vision was slowly going fuzzy. He tried to force his way up but his limbs would not work anymore. He closed his eyes and prepared for the end.

Until suddenly, the massive weight was lifted off him. Her claws on his neck had been digging into his skin so when the weight disappeared, that caused a small cut to be made in Perry's neck. He struggled into a sitting position, the roars and scuffling sounds of battle returning to his ears. He turned round and spotted a familiar darker teal platypus wrestling with the lioness.

"P-Portia?!" he spluttered.

The thing that unfroze him was Portia's shriek of pain. Perry quickly darted forwards, ignoring the pain in his head, and kicked the lioness as hard as he could in the head, just as Portia had done to him in their first battle. The lioness collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Perry turned to Portia and helped her up, making the darker teal platypus to let out a wince of pain. Perry saw three bloodied claw marks in her side. "Are you okay?"

Portia nodded, her breathing a bit too shallow for Perry's liking. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Okay, good." Perry suddenly took a step back. "Hold on, how did you get out?"

Portia thought about not telling him but then she reasoned that Oliver and Georgia were probably halfway, if not all the way, to ARCHANGEL by now. "Oliver managed to free himself and then he freed Georgia and me," she replied.

"And where are Georgia and Oliver now?"

Perry's head turned and spotted the open security gate even as Portia replied, "They went back to ARCHANGEL."

Perry turned back to Portia in alarm. "But you said the new penalty for getting captured is execution!"

Portia had a sad look on her face. "I know. But they still believe that ARCHANGEL is good."

Perry felt his heart leap. "And…you don't?"

Portia glared at Perry. "I still don't trust you," she said. "I don't know if I ever will again, but…OWCA is definitely better than ARCHANGEL. I thought the punishments we were given in ARCHANGEL were deserved by all of us. But now I see that punishing Taskers—or agents—is not the way to enforce obedience."

Perry shook his head. "It's really not." He ducked as an eagle flew over his head.

 _Whoa, déjà vu._

"We need to finish this battle," he said.

Portia grinned and brought out a gun-shaped item from her fur pocket. "Then it's lucky I stopped off at the armoury and got this dart gun, isn't it?"

Perry shook his head in wonder. "You really are one of a kind."

Perry and Portia ran together about the battlefield; the former calling out the animals who needed to be darted by the latter, since some agents may have lost their fedoras in the battle, like Peter the Panda, who almost got darted by Portia until Perry quickly stopped her.

They didn't have to dart everyone. Some of the agents were able to drive their opponents out of the gate and into the woods. When the battle was over, everyone's attention was diverted to Perry and Portia, the latter of whom was jumped on by at least five different agents who recognised that she should have been in a prison cell.

As Portia was carried away by Ellie the Eagle, not resisting, Perry gave Portia a determined look, telling her that he was going to get her out.

She had single-handedly swung the battle in their favour just with sheer determination and a dart gun. There was no way Perry was going to allow her to rot in a prison cell any longer.

However, he knew that this was her second—third, if Perry was being technical—escape attempt, and Major Monogram might not be very lenient…

…

 **PORTIA HELPED PERRY! She still doesn't trust him, understandably, but she still helped Perry!**

 **Also: what of Oliver and Georgia? WILL they be executed? *shrugs* Who knows? Well, I do XD**

 **Also also: THAT "Everybody hurts" LINE!**


	18. True Feelings

"Out of the question," Major Monogram said firmly.

"But sir, she helped us defeat ARCHANGEL," Perry protested. "And she saved my life."

"Out. Of. The. Question. I find it absolutely absurd that you're even asking."

"Sir, I really believe that Portia can benefit from being allowed to roam OWCA free."

"Agent P, may I remind you that you are very close to being on probation for that stunt you pulled," snapped Major Monogram, jabbing his finger at Perry. "In fact, it's only thanks to Kane that you're not on probation. So I suggest you keep your bill shut and don't say another word about that platypus being allowed to go free."

Perry shut his beak obediently but he definitely wasn't happy. He stormed out of Major Monogram's office and ran straight to his office, where he collapsed into his chair and hit the desk with his fist in anger. He had a very angry, and very quiet, ten-minute rant about Major Monogram, which included some colourful language. He wished the major would see that Portia was changing. In a few days or so, she could be ready to join OWCA.

A knock on the door interrupted his hissed rant. He snapped, "What?" without looking round.

"It's me," said Pansy's voice.

Perry turned and saw Pansy standing at the entrance to his office. He sighed. "Sorry, Pansy. I'm just really annoyed right now because Major Monogram just won't consider letting Portia out of the prison and it's not fair."

Perry expected Pansy to take Major Monogram's side and list several reasons why Portia shouldn't be allowed to be free but Pansy just nodded. "I understand."

"You do?"

"I saw her save your life on the battlefield earlier," Pansy told him. "After that, I think she can be reformed."

"Will you come down to the cells with me and visit her?" Perry asked before he could stop himself.

Pansy gave him a surprised look. "Are you sure you want me along?"

Perry nodded determinedly. "I need to sort several things out. Like my feelings."

Pansy felt her heart skip a beat. If that meant what she thought it meant, Perry was finally going to decide if he loved her or Portia. And though she knew that she was desperately hoping that Perry would choose her, she really did just want Perry to be happy.

Perry took Pansy's hand and led her to the prison cells. Ellie the Eagle was on guard yet again. Perry found himself wondering if she ever did anything else. She was on guard with the rhino agent, who gave Perry a look as the platypus took his ex-girlfriend through the doors.

Perry felt a twinge of sadness in his chest as he saw Oliver's and Georgia's empty cells. He had been so preoccupied with trying to get Portia to trust him again that he had almost completely ignored them. He certainly should have visited them more. They must have felt even just a little bit bad when they saw Perry going to visit Portia so often.

Perry and Pansy stopped in front of Portia's cell. The dark teal platypus was curled up on her side on the bed, facing away from them. Perry suddenly realised something. "Oh, shoot. There's something I have to tell Pinky."

"You go," said Pansy. "I'll stay here."

Perry looked at her in surprise. "Really?"

Pansy shrugged. "Yeah, sure. I need to talk to Portia anyway."

"Okay." Perry looked doubtful but Pansy waved her hands in a shooing motion and he left.

Pansy sat down in front of the cell and crossed her legs. "Hey," she said, as if they were old friends.

"Hi," said Portia's miserable voice. "Are you here to hate me?"

"Hate you…?" It took Pansy a good ten seconds to realise what she was talking about. "Oh, about the-no. I don't hate you. The way I see it, we're equal."

Portia rolled over and frowned at Pansy. "What?"

"I said some pretty cruel things and you threatened my life. We're equal."

Portia kept frowning, and Pansy knew that the teal platypus was searching for any sarcasm in her voice. Pansy hadn't put any sarcasm in her voice, and it was this conclusion that Portia seemed to come to. "Okay…thanks."

Pansy looked away and gazed at the ground. "I think Perry's going to tell us who he loves."

Portia got up off the bed and knelt down on the opposite side of the glass to Pansy. "Really?"

Pansy nodded. "I love Perry with all my heart but I just want him to be happy. I'm sure he's going to choose you."

Portia lay her head on the glass. "But how can I love someone I don't even trust?"

Pansy copied Portia's movement. "I know how hard having your heart broken is. Before I met Perry, I was in a relationship with this macho platypus called Pally. Now that I look back on it, it's obvious that he was abusing me. I was constantly scrambling to impress and please him but he never showed signs of either, not even when I bought him presents and did everything for him. He sometimes hit me too. Then he cheated on me and broke things off with me. That scarred me pretty badly, but it was even worse when half a year later he asked me back and I believed he had changed and said yes. But of course, he hadn't changed. He kept on physically abusing me and I never believed it was wrong. I believed I deserved it."

Pansy paused, lost in the memory of her abusive boyfriend. Portia watched her sadly. "So what happened?"

"In the end, he cheated on me yet again and sent me packing. Two days later, I met Perry, and it was obvious that he cared about me. He wasn't using me, like Pally was. When Pally tried to take me back about four months into my new relationship, Perry beat him up and made him promise to never come near me again. That proved to me that I could learn to trust again. My trust was shattered after Pally used me and cheated on me twice, but Perry healed my heart and allowed me to love again." Pansy gave a small smile. "So even if Perry doesn't end up choosing me, it won't be the end of my world, because he helped me in ways I can never repay. He deserves to be happy."

Portia gazed at Pansy in admiration. "You've really made him happy. There's a real chance he will choose you, you know. You obviously have real feelings for him."

Pansy nodded. "I do. I love him with all my heart. But the question is: do _you_ have real feelings for him?"

Portia furrowed her brow in thought, as if actually listening to her heart. "Yes," she said eventually. "I do. I love Perry. I've loved him since I was little."

"I knew you would say that," Pansy said, smiling. "And I think that either one of us will make Perry very happy."

Portia managed to grin. "May the best platypus win Perry's heart."

That made both female platypuses laugh. They were still laughing when Perry came back and sat beside Pansy. "You sound like you're having fun," he said amusedly.

"Oh we are," Pansy said with a mischievous look at Portia, who grinned back.

Perry was confused. "Okay…well…" He hesitated, not quite knowing how to get the words out. "During these past few days, I've had time to think about things. My heart has sorted itself out. I know exactly who I love, and…I'm confident I'm about to make the right decision."

…

 **Please don't hate me for that cliffhanger…*innocent smile* love you guys!**


	19. I Love You

Pansy and Portia were staring at him with anticipation. "I-I just want you to know that even if I don't love you as a mate, I will always love you as a very close friend," Perry stammered. "Please understand that."

The two female platypuses nodded together, with hopeful expressions on both their faces.

"There's amazing things about both of you," Perry said. "Pansy, you're loyal and brilliant and skilled. Portia, you're fiery and caring and skilled." He paused. "But…my heart knows who it loves."

Pansy held her breath. Portia bit her lower beak.

"And that's Portia."

Pansy turned away and closed her eyes in disappointment. Portia's hands flew to cover her mouth in shock, tears glistening in her eyes. Perry ran to the button that controlled the cage doors and opened Portia's cell. Portia immediately ran out and tackled Perry in a hug. Then they kissed, and it was the best kiss of Perry's life.

When they broke apart, Perry turned towards Pansy, who was still sitting where she was. "Pansy…"

The orange platypus moved suddenly and wrapped Perry in a hug, tears falling down her face. "I'll always be here as a friend for you, Perry. No matter what."

"Y-you're not mad?"

"I can't be mad at someone for not loving me," Pansy admitted. "Even though it hurts because I thought you were going to choose me, you healed my heart and helped me trust guys again. It's thanks to you that I didn't close myself off to love after what Pally did to me. For that, I will always be grateful. The disappointment will sting for a while but I'll move on. I'll always be here as a friend for you."

Perry hugged Pansy back, close to crying himself. "Thank you, Pansy."

Pansy then let go of Perry and allowed he and Portia to kiss again. "We're mates now, right?" Portia muttered in his ear.

"Of course," Perry said, smiling. "I love you, Portia."

"I love you too, Perry."

"Sorry to interrupt," Pansy interrupted. "But someone's going to have to tell Major Monogram, and he's definitely not going to be happy about this."

To the female platypuses' surprise, Perry was grinning. "Don't worry, I have a secret weapon up my sleeve."

"Really?" Pansy said.

"OWCA's bylaws dictate that if an OWCA agent takes a mate outside of OWCA, and if the mate wants to, then the organisation has to let that mate join OWCA, or at least begin training to join OWCA."

Portia gasped. "Really? I can join OWCA?

"Yep. Besides, if you can prove to Major Monogram that you're willing to be on our side, he'll definitely see that you're a valuable asset to us."

Portia beamed and hugged Perry again. "I'll get to stay with you?"

"We stay together."

"Then let's head up to Major Monogram's office," Pansy said. "I'll come with you for support."

They almost failed to even get out the door; Ellie the Eagle was definitely stricter on regulation than Harry and Maggie had been. "I can't let the prisoner out without expressed orders from Major Monogram," she said.

"She's my mate," Perry argued, feeling a warm glow in his heart as he said that. "That means she's at least allowed to go into OWCA's office floor. Besides, both Pansy _and_ I will be with her."

Ellie narrowed her eyes. "I need permission from Major Monogram."

"We're going to _get_ permission," Pansy said, thinking quickly.

Ellie swung her gaze on Pansy. "Alright, but you better know what you're doing."

"I do, thanks." Perry narrowed his eyes back at Ellie as he passed. He had never truly liked Ellie: she was too much of a planner and she disliked Perry, who was very spontaneous.

Perry led the way up to the busy office floor. Because of Portia's various escapades, it was rare that they bumped into someone on their way to Major Monogram's office who didn't immediately give them a death glare. Even though the hatred wasn't really directed at him, Perry still felt uncomfortable under the angry glares of his colleagues. Even Terry and Tallulah frowned in their direction as they passed, which did hurt Perry a little.

When they finally got to Major Monogram's office, Carl was sitting outside behind his own desk, and he gave them a look of astonishment as Pansy knocked on the major's door. Perry gave an awkward smile back as he and the two girls went through the door. Major Monogram was once again seated behind his desk, but he sharply stood up when the three platypuses came in. "Agent P, what is this?" he snapped. "Why is the prisoner out of her cell _again_?"

Pansy stepped forwards. "Agent P and Portia are mates now, sir."

Major Monogram looked like he was about to faint. "They're _what?"_

"I love Perry," Portia said defensively.

"And I love Portia," Perry added. "And since OWCA's bylaws state that any agent's mate who wants to join OWCA can join OWCA, Portia is legally entitled to at least a four week training period."

Major Monogram's face went through a variety of emotions. Before it could settle on one, Portia stepped past Pansy and went straight up to Major Monogram's desk. "Sir, I am very sorry for all the grief I have caused you. I was ignorant of the fact that I was being used by Kirk Kennedy. But I have seen the light. Perry helped me see the light. ARCHANGEL is bad, I know that now. OWCA is the good organisation. I want to be a reliable, dependable, and skilled OWCA agent. I'm already trained in various martial arts. Besides, I have lots of in-date information about ARCHANGEL that I can and will share. I will do absolutely anything I can to prove to you that I can be a great OWCA agent."

Major Monogram considered this, a very hard-to-read expression on his face.

"For what it's worth, I think we'd benefit hugely from Portia's presence," Perry said, raising his paw slightly.

"That's enough from you, Agent P."

Perry fell silent.

Major Monogram narrowed his eyes at Portia but his expression relaxed slightly when he saw how tightly Perry and Portia were holding hands. "And you're okay with this, Agent Pansy?"

"Yes, sir."

Major Monogram nodded. "Then I assign you to be her Supervising Officer. Agent P, you can sit in on training but I expect you to stay away from her while Agent Pansy is training, yes?"

Perry gaped at his superior. He had not expected the major to agree to the plan at all, let alone so readily.

"Agent P?" repeated Major Monogram impatiently.

Perry gave his head a little shake but Portia grabbed Major Monogram's hand and shook it. "Thank you, sir. You will not regret this."

Major Monogram retracted his hand. "I expect you to pull your weight."

Portia saluted. "Absolutely, sir!"

With that, the three platypuses left the office. Perry stared at Portia for a moment in silence before he picked her up and swung her around in utter joy. "You're joining OWCA!"

"I'm joining OWCA!" laughed Portia.

As Perry put his mate down, the same thought was buzzing through his head:

 _I have a mate and she's joining OWCA!_

"I have to tell Pinky," Perry stated, beginning to run off. "Pansy, look after Portia!"

He ran all the way to the medical bay and found Pinky up and walking around. When the Chihuahua spotted Perry, he turned away. Perry, remembering their argument, walked slowly up to his best friend. "Pinks?"

"You aggravate me so much at times, Perry the Platypus," sighed Pinky. "I just wish sometimes that you wouldn't abuse regulations like that."

"I know." Perry bowed his head. "But I've got some news to tell you."

Pinky narrowed his eyes. "What?"

"Portia's my mate now and she's going to join OWCA."

Pinky stared at Perry, who grimaced at the ground, waiting for his best friend to give him a million and one reasons why that wasn't a good idea. But instead, Pinky darted over to Perry and hugged him around the waist. "That's great, Perry. I know how hard this was for you to bear but if you're happy, I'm happy."

Perry _was_ happy.

…

 ***cries in happiness* that's it, folks. That's the happy ending I prepared when I started writing this story :) except there's still an epilogue to go so this is the penultimate chapter**


	20. Epilogue

**EPILOGUE TIME!**

…

Panting, Oliver stopped running outside the gate to ARCHANGEL's base. Georgia stopped beside him, looking up at the gate. "We made it," she panted. "But you remember that the punishment for getting captured is execution?"

"Didn't Kirk say that that was only if we were captured and had to be rescued?" Oliver asked. "Surely the fact that we managed to rescue ourselves will turn in our favour."

Georgia made a face. "We're treading on thin ice there, and you know it."

Oliver nodded. "I know, but what other choice do we have? Portia's obviously been recaptured and we definitely can't go back to OWCA so we have to go through with this."

Georgia nervously took Oliver's hand. The ocelot squeezed her paw reassuringly. "We'll be fine. Ready?"

Georgia nodded, and the two animals knocked on the metal gate together. Immediately, they noticed four security cameras turn towards them. They held still, and then the gate opened. They went inside the base and were immediately found by Leslie the Lemur, who had been one of the few who had been driven off in the last battle. "Georgia, Oliver, you're back!"

She hugged both of them in turn. "Where's Portia?"

"Still captured," Oliver replied. "She must have been in interrogation when we left."

Georgia snuck an uneasy glance at Oliver, but Leslie seemed to be taken in by the lie. "Then you'll want to see Kirk, yes?"

She suddenly covered her mouth with her paws. "But…the punishment's execution!"

Before anyone could say anything else, a booming voice echoed throughout the hall: "Oliver and Georgia!"

Leslie flinched. "Well, it was nice knowing you." With that, she scuttled off, leaving Georgia and Oliver alone in the middle of the room.

Kirk Kennedy strode down the stairs from the balcony above the hall. "So you're back," he said. "But you were captured."

"Yes, but we escaped on our own!" Oliver quickly offered. "You didn't have to rescue us!"

"But you still got captured in the first place," Kirk said, holding the dagger in his hands.

Georgia clutched Oliver's arm in fear. The ocelot, undeterred, said, "Yes, but you didn't need to waste time or resources rescuing us. We got out on our own."

"That isn't the point," Kirk said. He was now just a few meters away from the two animals. "I always tell you that if you get captured, you get executed upon release or escape. We never spend time or resources rescuing Taskers who are not skilled enough to evade capture."

Georgia whimpered. Oliver angled himself in front of her to protect her. "Please, it was my fault. It was my fault we got captured. Punish me, not Georgia. Please, it wasn't her fault."

Kirk raised an eyebrow. Then, quick as lightning, he grabbed Oliver and slammed him into the wall, holding him there by his neck. Georgia screamed and held her hands to her face in fear. Kirk twirled the dagger in his free hand. "This is hard for me to do, Oliver, because you've been a good and loyal Tasker for ten years."

Oliver struggled but not as hard as he could have done. He didn't want to make things worse by trying to bite or scratch Kirk. Georgia was watching in horror. "No, please!" she screamed, running up to Kirk and pulling on his trouser leg. "Leave him alone!"

"Shut up," Kirk snarled, kicking Georgia hard in the stomach. The golden retriever fell backwards with a whimper of pain.

"Don't hurt her!" Oliver croaked. "Please!"

"How noble of you," sneered Kirk. "But I'm afraid I must punish any and all Taskers who are not up to scratch. That includes you and Georgia."

The hand holding the knife moved like a flash.

Oliver's tortured scream echoed throughout the entire base.

…

 ***le gasp* OLIVER!**

 ***another le gasp* this is the epilogue! It's all over! I have some things to say:**

 **A lot of this story was inspired by Nightflame203's series Three Platypi And An Evil Organisation and Rotten To The Core. I highly recommend reading them and any other stories she posts because they are AWESOME! You'll see many similarities between her stories and mine because we get ideas from each other (mostly me getting ideas from her) XD**

 **Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the sequel: Stronger Than You, coming soon :)**


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